


The Greatest of All Time

by Brenxalex



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, I will make her find toni before this story ends though, I wrote Cheryl dating Archie before she came out, So i am sorry about that, i wanted to write this so bad, ice dance au, if no one likes this i'm not even sorry, just like tessa and scott over 20 years, the one that no one asked for but tessa and scott took over my whole entire life, this is slow burn af my dudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-03-30 04:16:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 62,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13942416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brenxalex/pseuds/Brenxalex
Summary: She takes his hand and as they glide along the ice. There’s a strange feeling, a feeling of fate. A feeling that this is how things are meant to be. It reminds her of the first time she stepped on the ice. Everything falls into place.At first, he’s reluctant, but as soon as her small hand tucks into his, something falls into place and everything feels complete. She’s this calming force in his life. And from that day on he knew that she would be someone very important to him.





	1. The First 12 Years

**Author's Note:**

> This is 100% inspired by the greatest ice dancers of all time, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. I have loved them since 2010 and my love for them was only fueled more at the 2018 Olympics.  
> This story is loosely based on their 20-year journey/friendship. (Loosely because Tessa and Scott never dated and aren’t dating) 
> 
> A disclaimer: I’m trying my best to stay on T/S career timeline but if ages and years get messed up or confusing, just know that I suck at math and I write after doing 123123 of homework so my brain isn’t working. Also, if you have heard of Tessa and Scott you know how proud they are to have represented Canada every time they compete so, I could not do them the disservice of making ‘the greatest of all time’ American. Even if it is an au, therefore I have taken the creative freedom of making Veronica and Archie compete for Canada. Not Canadians, though that will be explained pretty quick into the story. Anyway, thank you for reading this long ass note. Hope you like this. 
> 
> The program dedicated to this chapter is “I want to hold your hand” if you want to watch it here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxHLBPPobJo (if you watch this, let me know if you felt things.)

i.

Her life revolves around dance. Ever since she was three years old she dreamed of being a ballerina. She worked Day in and day out. Early mornings, late nights, practice after practice dancing in her kitchen, basement, or room in the late hours of the night, to any kind of music. Dance was her everything.

She thought that being a ballerina was her end goal. That that’s where everything began.

Until one day, on a day too hot to move, her mom takes her to the Riverdale Skating Club. They rent her out some skates and as soon as her blades hit the ice she’s in love and she knows, this, this is what she wants to do. So at the age of seven, she begs her mom to let her take some figure skating classes, just on the side of ballet. Hermione doesn’t deny her little girl anything and soon Veronica is attending Skating lessons twice a week for three hours.

She falls in love with Skating more every time she steps out onto the ice. The crisp sound of her blades scratching the surface as she digs her edges and picks up speed. She’s addicted to the flow and how fast she can move but still make it look effortless and graceful.

The Riverdale skating club becomes her second home after a few short weeks. Her coach ms Andrews owns the skating club and has taken such a liking to Veronica that she lets her skate after her lessons are over.

Her mom starts questioning whether she would like to quit ballet and dedicate herself to just figure skating but Veronica is not ready to give up what she held so dear to her heart.

It’s a few months after her seventh birthday is when she meets the Andrew’s boy. He’s nine and a hockey player but his aunt, her coach, had told him that figure skating would help him with hockey. So he shows up to the rink and she stands by the sidelines watching as he struggles to remember that he has toe picks now.

His aunt smiles at her and tells her to head on to the ice and help Archie skate.  
When she reaches him and he gives her a dazzling smile, the smile that she would learn gives her a sense of place, the smile that grounds her, she knew that this boy would be important.

She takes his hand and as they glide along the ice. There’s a strange feeling, a feeling of fate. A feeling that this is how things are meant to be. It reminds her of the first time she stepped on the ice. Everything falls into place.

They spend hours holding hands, lost in the feeling of togetherness.

She loves having the skating rink to herself but after having skated with Archie that one time, everything feels much different, almost like she shouldn’t be out there alone.  
Her first time competing, the judges love her so much they’re convinced she’s lying when she says she has never skated competitively before. She’s glad they can see how natural it feels to be out there.

Her life becomes busy, she’s just a kid and in between school, birthday parties and ballet, the only time she can skate is when she has lessons. She craves the feeling of the ice under her, dreams about the next time she can skate. Veronica is stubborn though, she will not give up ballet yet, something is missing, something is holding her back from throwing herself all in.

On a rare free day, Veronica looks excitedly at her mom, skates in hand and Hermione knows immediately what she’s asking.

Veronica is surprised to find Archie when she arrives at the rink. He’s so enthralled with the music playing over the loudspeakers that he doesn't notice her. She sits on the bench to put on her skates and watches the way he moves to the music like it belongs to him. The music seems to almost be coming out of his body.  
When she steps on the ice, they don’t speak a word to each other, except for a whispered hello as she starts to skate. Somehow they end up gravitating towards each other and her hand finds its way into Archie’s. Soon, they’re dancing like they never stopped the first time they met. 

Archie’s aunt is so perplexed by how natural they are that she suggests her and Archie train together for competitions. And that is the first time Veronica hears what would lead to the rest of her life, ‘ice dance.’

Veronica loves ice dance. It has the beautiful artistry, speed and flow without the dangerous and frankly terrifying jumps and lifts. There’s definitely technical elements but ice dance is so much more. It’s about telling a story and being one with your partner.

Veronica falls so hard and so fast for ice dance that she’s terrified that Archie will choose hockey over it.

Much to her surprise, Archie shows up for the first day of official training and keeps showing up every day after that. She doesn’t give up solo competitions or ballet and he doesn’t give up hockey but they make it a priority to get together and train every day from 4 am to 9 am. It’s hard at first, they’re so young and trying to figure out why they’re waking up so early, it’s an adjustment. Once they get into the flow of things they train like veterans, they push and push because if they’re going to do this, they’re going to be the best.

When she gets into the National Ballet School at the age of nine she doesn’t feel as torn as everyone assumed. Yes, she is beyond honoured to have been offered a place in the school but she doesn’t see ballet as her one and only anymore. Her mom kept telling her that it was her decision and to think it over and over.  
So she does, but not by herself, this decision doesn’t only affect her.

She tells her mom to drive her to Archie’s place so she can sit down and talk to her partner of two years.

When she gets to Archie’s home, his mom graciously answers the door and let’s both Veronica and her mom in, shooing Veronica up to Archie’s room.

 

Veronica knocks and shyly peaks her head in, Archie is sitting on his bed taping up a hockey stick and listening to music. She guesses this is what eleven-year-olds do.

“I have important news.” She says with all the seriousness her small squeaky nine-year-old voice could muster.

Archie gives her the smile he only ever gives her and beckons her in.

“Hey Ronnie, what is it?” She sits in front of him on his desk chair and summons all the courage she has to tell him. She needs the courage because if he tells her to go to ballet school, it means he doesn’t want to dance with her and that will break her heart.

“I got into the National Ballet school and I want to know if you want me to go.” Her voice firm, she studies Archie’s features.

“I only want you to go if it’s what makes you happy.” She sees how strong he’s trying to be, already at such a young age trying to put her first.

“Dancing with you makes me happy.” She says a smile on her face.

“Good, I didn’t want to look for a new partner anyway!” And just like that, their future is set.

She leaves ballet and solo competitions behind and he leaves hockey.

Veronica Lodge and Archie Andrews future Olympic hopefuls.

 

ii.

Archie started off as a Riverdale Jet. His dad had him playing hockey since he could stand up on a pair of skates. He got signed up to the team as soon as he was old enough and he knew that what he wanted to be was the next great one.  
Hockey was all he knew. He played on the frozen lake, on the street, in his garage, but more than any other place he played it at the Riverdale Skating Club. The perks of his aunt owning the place and coaching there.

Archie doesn’t know how he ended up ditching the hockey skates and lacing on the figure skates. All he knows is he was tricked. His mom and aunt told him that figure skating would help his hockey skill. And of course, when the two most important women in your life tell you, a nine-year-old, who are you going to believe?

So he started skating when no one was around. After the last lesson stopped he would stop messing around with the puck, put on some proper skates and take the ice. It took some getting used to, the toe pick took him out about a million times, but he learned to enjoy it.

His aunt would play music for him and that’s when he really got into it. It came so naturally to him, putting movement to any music that played. The flow of his body, moving to the rhythm as he glided back and forth on the ice, spinning and doing twizzles.

One day when everyone had left he laced up his skates and glided on to the ice, he hadn’t realized that there was still someone on it. Her presence took him by such surprise that he forgot toe picks existed and hit the ice like a big oaf. His aunt was trying to hold back a laugh while the girl on the ice just looked on with curiosity.

He learns that her name is Veronica. Not because she told him but because his aunt pretty much pushes them together and makes them hold hands.

At first, he’s reluctant, but as soon as her small hand tucks into his, something falls into place and everything feels complete. She’s this calming force in his life. And from that day on he knew that she would be someone very important to him.

Hockey is still very important to him and he would rather lose his favourite leaf’s jersey than miss playing in a game. But he also likes skating with Veronica. Likes how they can learn choreography so quickly and make it look like they have been doing it forever.

Skating with Veronica feels like Deja Vu like they have done this so many times before even though he had only started doing this with her a couple of months ago.  
It scared him how attached he became to her friendship, even if they didn’t talk. Like at all. He liked her presence and how they could communicate just by looking at each other. She would think and he would do. It’s how they worked.

When Veronica and him start getting serious about ice dancing, his aunt asks him to quit hockey. His heart sinks in his chest, he loves hockey, but he loves skating with Veronica. He doesn’t know how he’ll decide, so Veronica does it for him.

“Actually, Ms. Andrews, Archie’s hockey practices are at the same time as my ballet classes so he would be skating alone if he quit hockey.” She says in the sweetest voice. This is the first time she stands up for him. It won’t be the last.

His aunt says something along the lines of “you kids are never going to sleep.” but drops the subject and moves along with their choice of music for the program they’re going to skate.

He hates waking up at 4 am, but considering it’s his fault since he won’t give up hockey; he sucks it up and shows up.

It makes it better that Veronica is always there, waiting for him to arrive so they can skate together.

He doesn’t hate 4 am that much after a while.

It’s intense, how much stuff he’s doing and how he’s trying to keep up with it. People think that Veronica’s and his parents are insane for letting such young kids make all these crazy decisions. They always just say how it’s important that their kids are in charge of what makes them happy. He’s glad they have such a supportive group of people around them.

For two years everything goes perfectly, he does hockey, she does ballet, they skate. 

One day he hears a soft knock on his bedroom door and knows immediately who it is. He sees her little head poke through and he feels the smile grow on his face.

“Hey Ronnie, what is it?” She tells him about the ballet school, he feels his heart start to race and sadness start to creep into him. This has been her dream since her very first dance class. He knows because she wouldn’t have put herself through ballet and skating if it wasn’t. 

“I only want you to go if that makes you happy.” He means it. He wants only the best for her and if that means he has to throw himself into hockey at 100 percent he’s up for it. It’ll only be sad for a while. 

 

“Dancing with you makes me happy.” His face breaks out into a huge smile and he can feel the relief take over him. He can’t let her know how much this means to him though. 

“Good, I didn’t want to look for a new partner anyway.” There wouldn’t have been one. He would have quit, because what’s ice dancing without Veronica?

She quits ballet for ice dance so when his dad asks him to stop spreading himself so thin, he knows exactly what to do. 

He knew from the minute he first held Veronica’s hand that it would make more sense to hang out with a cute girl than 19 other guys.

 

iii.

Their first competition they come in third place which is super exciting because it’s their first time competing. He sees it in Veronica’s eyes though, he sees how much she wants to win that gold medal. He feels it inside himself too. The bronze medal is great, but they only use it as motivation to train harder for the next competition. 

Training gets harder and harder, they push each other so much to try and be at the level of their competitors but nothing seems to work. Everything is solidified when they come in seventh place. It breaks both their hearts, everyone seems to be light years ahead of them and he knows it’s time for a coaching change. He hasn’t voiced this to Veronica, but just looking at her and seeing the disappointment in her eyes, he knows that she knows it too.

“How?” Veronica is sitting next to him having just come off the ice from her warm up. Archie hadn’t even made it on the ice yet, having gotten lost in his thoughts from the competition yesterday.

“How what?” He starts lacing up his skates, looking up at Veronica who is drinking from her water bottle.

“How do we tell them we need to move on?” He still hadn’t talked to her about the coaching change but they were always connected so this didn’t surprise him.

 

“We have to find someone first before we tell them.” He sighs looking down, he knows what this means, and he knows that she knows too, but he has to reassure himself, he takes her hand in his and squeezes.

“Ronnie-’ she cuts him off with a nod.

“I know.” a pause “we have to leave.”

He knows it’ll hurt, knows it’ll be hard. He’s in his second year of high school and he’s having such a good time, he’ll miss all his friends. He’ll miss his family and his mom's homemade meals. He also knows that as long as he’s got Ronnie, he’ll be okay.

***  
They tell their parents about their plans on a Tuesday evening in the parking lot of the skating club before practice.

“No.” His mom had said. 

“This is where I draw the line.” Ronnie had started to tear up and all he could do was rub her back and watch as his mom yelled at everyone around them.

“Mary-” his dad spoke up just to shut back up again 

“No Fred! I am not sending our son to god knows where! I am not losing him!” She turns to Hermione and Hiram, asking for help

“Veronica, is this what you really want?” Ronnie nods at her mom, tears still in her eyes.

“Archie?” All eyes are on him, his dad smiles and his mom silently cries,

“Yes. More than anything, I want to be the best.” His mom turns around and starts walking into the arena then turns back. 

“We find the best boarding families and the greatest coaches. That is the only way I agree to this.” Ronnie instantly hugs his mother and jumps up into both her parents, whispering tearful thank you’s.

As they walk into practice he hears his mom tell his dad “these coaches better guarantee an Olympic gold medal.” He hopes so too.

They quickly find out that the best coaches, they train everyone in Canada. They also find out that in order to make the 2006 Olympics they would have a better shot at qualifying for team Canada. Team USA had so much talent already that they wouldn’t take a chance on two unknown kids. 

His dad comes up with the idea, they would become Canadian citizens in order to compete for Canada. He’s not opposed to it, seen as his favourite hockey team is Canadian, his favourite player is Canadian and his dad is Canadian. He would have an easier time getting the citizenship because of his dad. Veronica, on the other hand, would have a harder time because she was pure American. In order for Ronnie to be able to compete for Canada, she would have to reside in Canada for 6 months before applying for a citizenship. It becomes final, they’ll train in Canada. For them, and for the Olympics. 

“Do you mind competing for Canada?” He asks her one day, they’re sitting in his backyard, watching the stars. They should be sleeping since they have a super early practice the next day but their parents are working out all the paperwork.

“I would compete for Mars if it meant I got to keep dancing with you.” She leaves him speechless sometimes. The things she says make it seem like he's one of the most important people in her life and that gives him butterflies because she is the most important in his.

“You’re such a cheeseball, Ronnie.”

“Only for you Archiekins.” 

He’s 15 and she’s 13 when they move away from home to chase the Olympic dream.

Ilderton Ontario, here they come.

 

iv.  
It sucks. She hates this.  
Ilderton is such a wonderful place, a small town where she can just walk to and from wherever she needed to be. Especially since her so-called partner hated her and would never offer to drive her anywhere.

Ever since the move, Archie had been especially moody. And yeah her mom had told her about all the teenage hormones and how that could affect a teenage boy. But it sucked that it made him shut her out, especially since he was the only person she knew in this town.

Her boarding family is so sweet and they try very hard but she’s also in a mood when the person she’s supposed to trust with her whole life is ignoring her.  
She goes through the motions, practice, school, practice, sleep, practice, and so on. How could he be so good at ignoring her when they spent more half the day together, faces so close she could see the sprinkles of hazel in his deep brown eyes.

She decides boys are stupid. Even the one that made her feel like she was flying.

She focuses her energy on training with the best of the best. Cheryl and Jason Blossom. They’re brother and sister and they’re the same age as Archie but somehow they have come first in all their competitions so far. They’re American and they’re their biggest competitors. Archie hangs out with Jason and they play video games and seem to get along quite well. Her and Cheryl on the other hand, don’t really talk. Cheryl is too focused on the fact that they’re fighting for the same thing and doesn’t want to risk anything getting in the way of a gold medal.

Veronica walks down to the ice after her stretch and watches Jason and Cheryl skate, she likes to scope out what they’re doing, where they excel and where they’re struggling. Archie still hasn’t shown up and she knows that their coach is going to chew him out.

She sees how intricate and smooth Cheryl and Jason are. She notices a few faults here and there, like the fact that they don’t look at each other when they skate. Jason looks past Cheryl and Penelope Blossom hates that.

“How many times have I told you to look at her eyes! Look at her like a man who is in love!” Jason pulls away from Cheryl, scrunching his face up in disgust.

“She’s my sister!” Penelope throws her arms up and shakes her head.

“I didn’t ask you to kiss her Jason! I asked you to look at her eyes, the judges will deduct points if you don’t.” Cheryl stares angrily at Jason and goes off to skate a circle around the rink.

“We’ll make it up in our twizzles,” Jason says before catching up to Cheryl. 

She hears Penelope mutter under her breath that this is why she doesn’t train siblings. She probably has no choice since these are her kids. Veronica laughs at that, catching Penelope’s attention.

“Oh, and where is your partner miss giggles?” Veronica stiffens and sighs.

“I don’t know.” Penelope sighs

“Third time this week Veronica, get him under control.” She nods, wondering how in the hell she was going to do that when he wouldn’t talk to her.

“Hey there V.” A girl with beautiful blonde hair and green eyes said as she sat beside her to put on her skates.

“Hey, Betty.” 

“Shouldn’t you be out there?” She asked her giving her a sad smile.

“Yeah, I was just hoping he would show before I had to go out there by myself again.

“It’s a hard transition, it’ll be okay in a bit.”

“I hope you’re right,” Veronica says before getting up and making her way on the ice.

“Alright, I guess do your warm up and practice synchronizing your twizzles to an invisible Archie until he decides to show up,” Penelope tells her.

He doesn’t show up. 

She finishes a whole practice without even hearing from him. She’s furious and Veronica hardly ever gets mad. They moved all the way here, to a different country so they could skate, so that they could be Olympic contenders and he doesn’t even show up to practice. She is seething and she is going to kill him.

When her boarding dad picks her up from the rink, she doesn’t talk, and he knows better than to push her. When they get home she goes straight to sleep, hoping that Archie will show up to practice tomorrow morning.

 

“Hey.” She doesn’t look up at him, just puts her skates on and goes to Penelope who is waiting by the ice. She knows Penelope already yelled at him, she heard it when she walked in. She thinks he prefers being yelled at then being ignored. 

Practice goes without a word from her. It’s not that he doesn’t try because he does, it’s that she wants to make him feel the way he has been making her feel.  
Penelope says that they have to fix whatever is going on between them because it’s affecting they’re skating and that ‘you guys suck at skating and suck to be around right now.’  
She’s leaving the rink to walk to school when he comes chasing after her.

“Ronnie come on.” She hesitates a bit but continues walking.

“I’ll give you a ride to school and we can talk.” He sounds sincere but she’s so hurt that she rather just keep walking.

“Veronica seriously! Stop being like this.” That stops her and makes her turn, her hair whipping and Archie almost bumping into her.

“What Archie? You’re the only one that can be like this? You’re the only one that can go weeks without talking to me? You’re the only one that can make me feel like shit every day?” Archie’s mouth falls open, she’s never cursed in front of him, she never really does curse in general.

“You get to miss practice, not even have an excuse and then expect me to what? Be all cheery and happy with you the next time you decide to grace me with your presence? That’s not how it works and you know it.” She takes a deep breath and holds out a hand, stopping Archie from saying whatever he was going to say.

“I moved away from my family. I gave up ballet, and I moved to a whole different country for you and for me. For us to be great, to go to the Olympics and at this rate I don’t see how any of this was worth it.” Archie’s looking down so she continues.

“I am a 13-year-old girl, who has the responsibility some 20-year-olds don’t even have. I have the weight of my world and your world combined on my shoulders. I would happily bear that weight if you could just show up for me and treat me like an equal, not some little girl who ruined your life. I know you wanted this just as much as I did, so what changed? Did I do something? Why won’t you talk to me and why do you hate me so  
much?” Her chest is heaving from the rant, tears playing in the corner of her eyes, she looks at Archie, trying to catch his eyes with hers.

Archie looks up at her finally making eye contact and she can see the tears brimming in his brown eyes.

“I never wanted to hurt you.” He takes a step toward her and holds her hand. She feels relieved at finally having contact with him.

“This is worth it, we are worth it. I still want this. I don’t hate you I just miss everyone back home so much and I guess I decided to take my anger out on the person that reminds me most of home. I’m sorry, you deserve so much better.” He’s begging with his eyes, asking for her forgiveness, telling her a billion things he doesn’t know how to say out loud.

She steps closer and wraps her arms around him, his head fitting in the crook of her neck. She feels safe again like she can breathe properly.

“So you still want to dance with me?” Archie asks into the skin of her neck.

“Always.” She says rubbing his back.

“I love you kiddo.” She smiles into his shoulder and thinks about how everything will be okay.

 

v.

After they almost fall apart, they’re back stronger than ever. They’re reaching the level of the elite that they want to reach and they’re soon on par with Cheryl and Jason, becoming their biggest competition, much to Cheryl’s disdain.  
But just because they’re at the same level as their top competitors, does not mean they are on the same level as the international champions. 

They find that out the hard way when they compete at the Junior Grand Prix and come in 4th in Croatia and 6th in Slovakia. It’s an improvement considering who they’re competing against.

When it came down to the Canadian Championships, they were feeling better than ever so it came to no surprise when they win their first junior title. He pulled Veronica right into his arms after the skate finished because he could see in her eyes that she knew they had just skated the best they could. Sitting in the Kiss and Cry, waiting to get their results, he couldn’t stop fidgeting, Veronica put her hand on his knee trying to calm him. It was the longest minute and thirty seconds of his life. When the number one appeared next to both their names, he yelled from happiness and squeezed veronica in his arms. Her laughter, music to his ears.  
After 7 years skating together, they finally had their gold medal.

Winning the Canadian championship title bought them a ticket to the world junior championships.  
They place 11th. The only thing that makes it a little more bearable is that Cheryl and Jason are in 12th. 

 

In their 8th year skating together, they move to the senior level nationally but remain at the junior level internationally after Penelope told them to get more practice in before they face the big guys.

During all this Veronica and him grow closer, their bond stronger than it has ever been. He would do anything for her and she for him. Nothing could break them apart. They were going to be great. They were meant for it, he is convinced that they are meant to be together. The world made them so they could skate together.

They keep skating and practicing, each time harder than the next. 

It pays off as they win gold in the Junior Grand Prix held in china and silver in the one held in France. That qualified them for Grand Prix Finals. Their first time and he can see Veronica pretty much chewing off her fingers.

 

They hug before they go on the ice, like every other time. They sync their breathing together for 30 seconds and prepare to it the ice.

Before they step on the ice, he connects his eyes with hers and whispers, “just us” to which she nods and mouths ‘us.”  
They dance to ‘call me irresponsible’ by Bobby Darin and they come in 2nd. He’s happy because it’s their first Grand Prix Final but sad because Veronica thinks it’s her fault they didn’t win gold. 

“It isn’t your fault. It’s no one's fault. It just wasn’t our turn.” He tells her, hugging her in the Kiss and Cry looking over at Cheryl and Jason celebrating their gold medal. 

They make their senior debut at Canadian championships and place fourth behind Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones. He loves those two but seeing the sadness in Ronnie’s eyes makes him resent his friends just a little bit.

They win silver again at the 2005 world championships and he starts to feel the hunger for gold again, seeing Betty and Jughead with gold around their necks makes him want gold so bad he would almost do anything. 

“We won’t qualify for the Olympics,” Ronnie tells him when they’re on a flight back from worlds. 

“What?” she looks emotionless but he knows her better than that. 

“We placed in second, we aren’t going to Turin.”

“You don’t know that.” She sighs.

“Yes, I do. We just aren’t good enough.” He hates seeing her like this since when is she the sad mopey one. Veronica is always the glass half full person in their partnership. 

He doesn’t say anything.

 

They stay at the junior level internationally and win both events at the Junior Grand Prix and they win the Junior Grand Prix Final.

In their 10th year skating together, they place 3rd at Canadian championships and they get named first alternates to the Olympic team behind Betty and Jughead.  
They won bronze at Four Continents and he can see that all Veronica is thinking about is the Olympics. It’s all he’s thinking about too.

Betty and Jughead go to the Olympics, they don’t win. The nerves got to them and they crashed into each other and the boards while doing their twizzles. It comes to a surprise to Archie and Ronnie since twizzles are what they’re best at.

“The Olympics are a whole different beast.” Clifford tells them, Penelope and him are coaching partners and Archie guesses Clifford drew the short straw since he’s here with them instead of at the Olympics.

meanwhile, Archie and Veronica become the first Canadian ice dancers to win gold in the world junior championships. They are so happy and honoured to be declared the most decorated junior level Canadian ice dancers but the missing out on the Olympics weighs heavy on them.

He knows there's no choice. They aren’t missing out on another Olympics. It’s time they buckle down. He can’t see Veronica cry again when some stranger informs them that they haven’t qualified. 

Four years. That’s what they’re working towards.

He doesn’t know when his feelings start to change for Veronica. He feels like it happens overnight, one day she’s this little girl with a missing tooth and the next she’s this beautiful woman who makes him feel flustered whenever she laughs at something stupid he just did. But he’s 18 and she’s 16, though it may not be a huge age difference it still makes him feel a bit weird so he turns his feelings off and focuses on just skating with her.  
And maybe he distracts himself with other girls. Lots of other girls.

vi.

“Cheryl!” She screeches at Archie. She’s seen him with a lot of girls, seen him flirt with complete strangers that mean nothing to him and nothing to her because he’s never going to see them again. Cheryl is a different story, Cheryl is their main competition, Cheryl gives her nasty looks and Cheryl is around all the time, she won’t just go away if Archie is dating her. The news makes her miserable but it’s only because Cheryl and Jason keep trading spots with them for gold. At least that’s what Veronica tells herself. It’s not like Archie would look at her that way anyway. Not that she would risk their careers if he did. She thinks.

“Calm down, Ronnie.” She sees red 

“Are you joking? Calm down? Cheryl is one half of why we keep getting pushed away from gold at international competitions and you want me to calm down?”

“It’s not going to affect our skating, we talked about it and we won’t go easy on each other.” She sighs. Whatever, if he’s happy, that’s all she can ask for.

“It better not, I can’t go through losing the Olympics again, Archie. I won’t do it.” He nods at her and pulls her into a hug.

“I would never do that to us.” She breathes him in and lets herself sink into the feeling of home she gets when she’s in his arms. The thought of him holding Cheryl like he’s holding her right now is the stuff of nightmares.

“Jughead and Betty are dating.” She giggles pulling away to look at his face, her arms still around him.

“I know! I’m the one that caught them making out in the change room.” Archie lets out a huge laugh, taking his arms from around her and bringing one hand to his chest.

“Of course that would happen to you.” She hears the door open from behind her and turns around just in time to see Cheryl walk in and smile at Archie.

“Hey babe.” she walks up to Archie and plants a sloppy kiss on his lips.

Veronica wants to throw up.

**

She sees Betty on the ice by herself and decides to join her.

“Nice silver medal!” she yells making Betty jump. Things with Betty and Jughead’s skating haven’t been the same since they got back from the Olympics. It’s like they psyched themselves out so much that they can’t get back to a good standing. The silver medal in Betty’s hand is a miracle.

“Oh my god, Veronica you scared me.” She fiddles with the medal in her hand shoves it towards Veronica.  
“Want to see?” Veronica takes it and looks at the design, she runs her fingers over the logo of the event and hands it back to Betty.

“Why is it here?” Betty puts it around her neck with a sigh.

“Penelope wants Jughead and I to train with them around our necks to make us feel the weight of not winning gold. 

Veronica snorts because that is ridiculous. 

“Shouldn’t she be happy that her top three teams got on the podium?” 

“Nah, she had Cheryl and Jason training with their Bronze medals this morning.”

“Do you think she’ll make Archie and I train with our gold medals on?” She winks at Betty who has started to warm up.

“Ha ha, very funny V.” Veronica and Betty skate in silence for the next few minutes until they’re interrupted by a boy with little crowns on his skates.

“Trying to steal my partner?” He comes up behind Betty and hugs her, taking her hand as they start to skate faster.

“All yours Jughead.” Veronica says as her respective partner comes up and takes her hand.

“Ronnie would never skate with anyone but me right?” She nods laughing at the face jughead pulls 

 

“How is it that Betty and I are the ones dating but you guys are the ones who are sappy and gross?” Archie just shrugs his shoulders as he grabs Veronica away from Betty and Jughead’s path, preparing for a lift.

“Probably because we’ve been together for 11 years.” and she knows he doesn’t mean together together but she can’t help but wish that that’s what he meant.  
They compete solely at the senior level and they make their senior Grand Prix debut at Skate Canada international. They win silver, behind Cheryl and Jason and in front of Betty and Jughead. 

They’re getting ready for Canadian Championships, all three teams on the ice when she crashes into some single skater trying to do a quad.

“Are you kidding?” The guy yells at her and Archie comes to her defence.

“Woah, you shouldn’t even be here. This is a closed practice.” Archie helps her up and stands in between the guy and her.

“Well, I train here now too so you can calm down.” They’re in an intense standoff when Penelope comes to the rescue.

“Boys! Enough. Archie, this is Chuck, he’s training here too, let’s all relax and make room on the rink alright?” Archie backs off and tries dragging Veronica with him but before he can, Chuck grabs her other arm and stops her from following.

“I’m sorry I caused you to crash.” He shoots her the most charming smile she has ever seen and she feels herself swoon. Archie is still holding onto her other arm and she can feel his grip tighten around it.

“That’s okay, I should've looked where I was going.” 

“No, it’s my fault, don’t worry.” She’s so lost in his eyes that she forgets Archie is still there until he speaks up.

“Okay whatever who even cares, Ronnie let’s go.” His voice sounds tense, she doesn’t know why it would be, Chuck apologized. She feels him tug at her arm again and she finally turns around and follows him.

She catches herself looking at Chuck throughout practice, she can almost feel Archie's eyes burning a hole into her forehead because he refuses to look at her and she doesn’t know why.

What did she do now?  
She never finds out what she did wrong but she does find Archie and Cheryl making out in the lunchroom. She loses her appetite. 

They win second again at Canadian championships and repeat their bronze and Four Continents. They’re happy that their consistent with staying on the podium but not getting gold is slowly torturing them to death.

They place 6th at World’s, highest for any team on their debut in over two decades and she rewards herself by going on a date with Chuck. She doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

 

Chuck is nice, he opens doors for her, surprises her with flowers and always texts goodnight. But when she’s in his embrace she doesn’t feel like home. He doesn’t make her feel like she can fly like a certain redhead can. She kisses him anyway and when he asks to sleep with her she doesn’t say no because she’s almost 18 and when else is she going to have time to lose her virginity with how busy her schedule is?

Somehow, Archie finds out and he is so pissed at her, she doesn’t understand why. She knows he lost his virginity at 15, she almost has two years on him, why would he be mad?

“You’re both idiots,” Betty tells her one afternoon.

“Why?” She rolls her eyes and looks over at Archie who is angrily doing pushups. Not that Veronica is watching or anything, her boyfriend is doing pull ups so she is definitely watching him. She swears.

“Why would he be mad that you lost your virginity to chuck?”

“Because he thinks I’m too young?” Veronica says, more like a question than a statement.

“You’re so naive it actually physically pains me.”

“He has a girlfriend.” 

“Why are you so clueless when it comes to him?” Veronica laughs a little, probably because if she keeps her distance, her heart won't suffer as much.“They broke up V.” Veronica almost gasps out loud, almost jumps up and runs to Archie to ask if it’s true.”

“What?” Betty looks at her incredulously.

“Yeah, I think it was mutual because Cheryl hasn’t tried to kill him yet.”

“She could’ve broken up with him?” Ronnie asks. Why wouldn’t he tell her?

“He doesn’t seem broken up about it.” Betty doesn’t know him like she does but even then, Veronica doesn’t see sadness, just determination. 

“He’s doing angry pushups.” She offers, even though she knows they aren’t due to Cheryl. It’s something else, she just can’t put her finger on it.

“He’s doing angry pushups because you were holding hands with Chuck when you walked in.”

“That’s ridiculous Betty.” It is, a confident guy like Archie wouldn’t be jealous of two people holding hands. Especially when one of those people is Veronica, who he doesn’t have feelings for. 

“We’re partners anyway, nothing could happen.” She fiddles with her fingers looking over at Archie, if he had looked at her then, he would’ve seen the longing looks she was throwing his way.

“And you have a boyfriend, doesn’t change the fact that you love Archie.” Veronica’s head snaps to Betty, her eyes wide.

“I am not in love with Archie!” She half whispers half yells.

“Of course you aren’t” Betty drops it as jughead approaches.

“So are you ladies just going to sit there or are you actually going to do off ice training?” He leans in to kiss Betty and Veronica turns away looking at Archie, wondering if Betty was right?

Was Archie jealous of Chuck?  
“I finished a bit ago, I’m waiting for Archie so we can go choreograph some stuff.”

“New program?” Veronica nods at Betty 

“New season.” Archie comes up behind her then, placing a hand on the small of her back and she physically relaxes into him.

“Let’s go.” He tells her guiding her with his hand still on her back.

She thinks it’s so weird how all their problems and tension between them just melt away when they start dancing together. They decided to dance to ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ for their Free Dance which is the one they are currently trying to tweak. Archie was opposed to it at first but she convinced him by giving an ultimatum.

Either Umbrellas or Hall and Oates. He hates Hall and Oates.

She wins. 

vii.

He wasn’t too into Umbrellas at first. To him, it was just a youtube video playing storm sounds and people speaking a language he didn’t understand, but Veronica had put in so much time perfecting the choreography with their instructor that he had to give in. The ultimatum also helped push him. 

He might be a little bit selfish but his favourite part of the routine is the spinning sequence because he just has to spin her while she has to perfectly time her leg movements and reach for her skate behind her head. She has it more difficult but they’re trying to get all the technical points they can and if Ronnie has to become a contortionist than so be it. 

As they compete, he gets more and more into the song. He even sings along to it, though he hardly understands it. He knows it’s about two people realizing they’re in love and that’s the story him and Ronnie are trying to portray on the ice. On off days, when his heart beats a little faster when she smiles at him, he thinks he doesn’t have to pretend that much.

He shoves his feelings to the back of his mind and continues skating.  
Chuck is always around. It’s like this dude doesn’t have his own skating career. It doesn’t help that he’s training at the same rink as them. He hates being jealous of Chuck because at this point he knows that no one can get in between Ronnie and him but when he sees her hand in chuck’s on chuck’s hands all over her, all he can picture is how he has touched all the same places. On ice and off ice. Though according to Josie, Chuck has one on him, he’s touched her in places that Archie will never know and it irks him to know that. It also irks him that he’s even thinking of Ronnie that way.

“Archiekins!” Ronnie jumps into him and pulls him from his thoughts.

“Hey, kiddo.” He breathes into her hair, hugging her back. She’s just gotten back from a trip home for her birthday while he decided to stay in Ilderton to skate.

“Not a kiddo anymore, I’m officially 18.” He hates how that stupid number makes him feel, gives him some sort of hope. He pushes it down.

“Congrats Ronnie.” She pulls back and smiles at him, looking for away, her eyes searching for someone. Chuck.

“I’m going to go find Chuck okay?” He nods, letting her go find her boyfriend. 

**

Umbrellas wins them the Skate Canada international title and second place at the NHK Trophy, which is not where they wanted to be but it qualifies them for the Grand Prix. 

It’s a bittersweet moment because they make it but Betty and Jughead don’t. They were pushed to fourth when Veronica and Archie placed second.

Cheryl and Jason were in third but Cheryl still finds it in her to rub it in their faces.

“I’m sorry Betty.” He hears Veronica say, hugging Betty so hard as Betty lets a few stray tears fall.

“Don’t ever apologize, V. This isn’t your fault, we just weren’t good enough today.” 

He smiles, he likes seeing that he isn’t the only one not letting Veronica blame herself for things she has no control over. Loves the fact that they have such great friends.  
“Spying on pretty girls?” A voice says from behind him. Kevin is a singles skater, he competes for Canada and they have gone out a few times. He considers him his best guy friend, obviously, Veronica being his best friend.

“Hey, Kev! Congrats on the hardware.” Kevin laughs tapping him on the back, still watching Betty and Veronica.

“Thank you! I honestly don’t know how I did it.”

“You’re the most talented singles skater out there, that’s how.”

“Well thank you for that title, almost feels better than a gold medal.” he pauses and then continues, motioning to the girls.

“What’s going on there?”

“Ronnie just felt bad for pushing Betty off the podium.” Kevin nods his head.

“She’s too good.” Archie bites his lip and agrees with Kevin.

“The best person I have ever met.”

“And she’s all yours.” Archie raises an eyebrow and shakes his head

“Nope, I have to share her with Chuck.” 

“Yeah well, that won't last. You guys are endgame.” Archie doesn’t even know what endgame is, whatever it means he shakes his head at Kevin and lets out a breathy laugh.

“I’m not going to pretend to know what that means, all I’m certain of is that the Olympics are our endgame.”

“Yeah, and marriage.” He stares blankly at Kevin, his heart racing. He only sees Kevin a handful of times throughout the year, how can he know how he feels?

“I don’t know how you know, but you can’t tell anyone.” Kevin does the ‘my lips are sealed motion’ pats him on the back again and starts to walk away.  
“I’ll see you soon, just remember who your endgame is!” He shouts as he walks away and Archie sweeps the room with his eyes to see if anyone heard what Kevin had said.

Jughead gives him a knowing look.

So much for sealed lips.

**

They come in fourth at Grand Prix Finals and the first thing Ronnie tells him when they get out of the Kiss and Cry is “this wasn’t worth pushing Betty and Jughead off the podium for.”

He thinks she’s right. The thing about Ronnie is she’ll blame herself for everything but as soon as she sees him blaming himself she pulls out all the stops to make him stop thinking like that.

He can’t do that for her though, it’s not about not winning gold, it’s about letting him down. He knows how much she hates it because he hates letting her down just as much, if not more.

They win gold at the 2008 Canadian championships and that earns them a qualifying spot for that year's Worlds and Four Continents.

Umbrella seems to be paying off because it also wins them silver at worlds.  
Four Continents is the start of what seems like the end. Not that he knows anything about it because she won’t tell him what’s going on. It feels like when they first moved to Ilderton, except instead of him ignoring her, she’s ignoring him.

He corners her after practice one day, she’s icing her shins.

“What did I do?” She looks at him and for the first time he notices how tired she looks, the bags under her eyes are from more than just early practices. He sees the sadness swirl in her eyes. He’s never seen her like this before.

“I don’t know how to tell you that this might have all been for nothing.” He tries to keep his breathing even but that’s kind of hard when his heart has started going so fast he hears it in his ears.  
“You can tell me anything.” He hears his voice shake and he cringes.

“I don’t want you to hate me.” How does she not get that he could never hate her? No matter what, he would always love her. In every way, in ways he wasn’t supposed to.

“I won’t ever hate you,” he reassures her by taking her hand and squeezing like so many times before.

“My legs hurt. They hurt more than anything I have ever had to deal with.” He hates where this is going.

“I thought you said they were just training pains.” He looks at the ice on her shins.

“That’s what I thought, but when my mom was in town we went to the doctor and he-” she takes a deep breath and continues, “he said that I have chronic exertional compartment syndrome.” He nods letting everything sink in and she keeps going 

“It means that I can only skate for a few minutes at a time without feeling like my legs are going to explode, and even if I could put myself through that, I would mess up every movement in the routine.” She’s crying by now, trying to wipe away the tears that keep falling. 

“I would never ask you to do that.” She’s the one nodding now.

“I need to have the surgery.” Archie shakes his head but knows it’s her decision.

“If I don’t I can’t skate anymore. If I do, there’s a chance I’ll be able to.”

“Do you want to keep skating?” she looks at him like he’s crazy.

“Of course I do! We’ve worked so hard.”

“No, do you want to skate for you, not for me, not for the Olympics. For you?” She thinks for a bit before answering him.

“Skating for me is skating for you. There’s no separating that. I do love it though. I love ice dance so much that if I can’t skate anymore. It’ll break my heart, I don't know how to come back from that.” he absorbs everything she just said before speaking up.  
“Okay. I’ll wait for you. I’ll train by myself until you’re back.” a smile plays on her lips, just as soon as it’s there, it disappears.

“I’m scared.” she sounds so broken he feels his heart flutter and his eyes water.

“You’ll be fine. This is what we’re meant to do. The world can’t take it from us. Not when you’re the strongest person I know.” she rests her head on his shoulder as they sit in silence.

They’ll be okay. They have to be.

**  
“No way.” He’s so angry with Penelope and Clifford for even suggesting it.

“Archie, you have to understand, you can’t just sit out for three months.”

“Yes, I can. If she doesn’t compete, I don’t compete. We’re a package deal, Penelope.” Penelope pinches her nose and Clifford is the one that talks to him next.

“Fine, you won’t compete with someone else but you at least need to practice with someone.” He immediately shakes his head not even humouring the idea.

They don’t understand how weird and uncomfortable he would feel skating with someone who isn’t Veronica. He won’t even consider practicing with anyone who isn’t her because he and Ronnie have a connection mastered through 11 years. There’s no way someone who he just meets could read his body language, as well as Ronnie, could. No one who would give him space and not freak out when he stormed off in anger.

“I already said no.” He sees the anger on Clifford’s face, sees the way that he relaxes when Penelope places a hand on his arm.

“Then how are you going to practice.” Archie thinks he can make due on his own until Ronnie gets back.

“I’m going to need sandbags and hockey sticks.” 

vii.  
She hears from Betty that Archie is practicing with sandbags and hockey sticks. It reassures her that she won’t lose him to anyone else. That’s about the only thing that reassures her because she hasn’t spoken to him since she left. She had her surgery and the only thing she had woken up to was a text saying ‘glad everything went well.’

She was expecting him to call her and ask how she was feeling, instead it’s been three weeks of radio silence. She supposes that she could also call him but she doesn’t know how to approach him without making feel bad.

She doesn’t want to sound like a sadsack on the phone and make him feel bad for being able to skate while she can’t. So she doesn’t call. She misses him, they have never gone this long without talking to each other. 

11 years together and this is the first time they don’t talk for three months. 

She feels empty. She wonders if he does too.

“Kev, have you seen him?” She’s on the phone to Kevin who was in London, just a few hours away from Ilderton.

“I’m going to see him tomorrow after my competition.” she hums in response and plays with the string on her sweater. 

“Oh. Well, tell him I say hi.” 

“He still hasn’t talked to you?” she shakes her head, forgetting that he need a verbal confirmation. 

“I haven’t talked to him either so-”

“You’re idiots.” He laughs.

“I’ve heard that one before.” 

They talk a bit more about everything and anything that didn’t have to do with Archie. She learns that Kevin is dating this guy named Moose. Moose is an alpine skier and his goal is also the Olympics. She guesses that out of everyone they come into contact with, they connect most with the people who are just as busy as them.  
“That reminds me, Chuck was way off his game in the short program today. Is that your fault?” 

“I don’t know, I broke up with him a week ago.” 

“Well thank you.”

“What?” She doesn’t know if to laugh or stay silent.

“He’s my main competition and you took him out so I could place first in the short dance. I’m a shoe-in for gold. Could you give him a call tonight so he stumbles tomorrow too?” Veronica full-on belly laughs, she hasn’t felt this freely happy for so long.

“You are so bad!” She can hear Kevin wheezing for air on the other end. 

“Don’t tell the judges, they might think I’ll pull a Tonya.” She can’t breathe but she’s happy about it.

They talk for another hour before they hang up, making promises that they’ll see each other once she’s back in fighting form.

Her mom comes home and brings her a strawberry smoothie. She’s happy to be home in Riverdale, happy about the attention from her parents, but she can’t help but wish she had someone else's attention.

**  
She’s back in Ilderton before she knows it and everything feels different. First, Penelope isn’t there because she’s at Skate USA with Cheryl and Jason. Second, Clifford is at Skate Canada with Jughead and Betty. Third, Archie is talking to some singles skater named Valerie and hasn’t even noticed her presence.

She wasn’t expecting a welcome parade but she wanted at least a ‘hello, how are you?’  
Some of the novice skaters notice her, they smile and wave politely and go back to their workouts.  
“My favourite!” 

“Josie!” Veronica leaps into her arms, feeling better already.  
“What are you doing here?” She looks to see if she had captured Archie’s attention. She hadn’t 

“Rumour had it that you were returning today and I was in town, just wanted to say hi.”  
Josie trained in Montreal with Alice Cooper and FP Jones as her coaches. The reason Betty and Jughead didn’t train with their parents is that they didn’t want special treatment. She found it hilarious and ironic how they trained with Penelope and Clifford Blossom, and their kids.

Josie and Veronica had met when Veronica still did singles competitions, Josie often joked how she was glad Veronica chose Ice Dance to make it easier on Josie.

They had kept in contact over the years and often skated at exhibitions after competitions since they both often ended up in the top three.  
She had spoken to Josie in the months she was out of commision but seeing her in person made her so much happier. 

“Makes you about the only one.” Josie frowns at Veronica’s pessimism and follows where her eyes land.

“Sorry about that, I brought Valerie and now your boy isn’t paying attention to you.”

“He’s not my boy.” She stopped denying she had feelings for Archie long ago, now she just says it with sadness in her voice.

“What does Kevin say? You guys are endgame.” Veronica shakes her head.

“He’s never seen me like that, never will.” Veronica misses the way Josie rolls her eyes. She swears she hears her say ‘idiots’ under her breath.

“Valerie! We have to go!” Josie shouts, Veronica unprepared for the loudness beside her jumps so high she almost bumps her head on a light.

Josie’s shout not only brings the attention of Valerie but also Archie’s.

It feels like everything is in slow motion, Veronica is so dramatic but she swears Archie look so beautiful. She hasn’t seen him in three months but he looks taller, his arms are buffer, something. He looks so good. He’s looking at her the same way she imagines she’s looking at him. Like they’ve been deprived of water for three months and finally, they’re getting a taste of the sweet refreshing liquid. She’s home.

Damn it, she’s so smitten with him.

Archie seems lost looking at her, probably because they haven’t spoken in forever, he doesn’t know what to say. He pretty much pushes Valerie into the boards, making his way to her and Veronica has to hold in a laugh.

“Ronnie.” He says her name like some sort of prayer and she stops breathing.

“Hi, Archiekins.” in two seconds he’s in front of her and enveloping her in a hug. She loves being held by him. This part will never get old.

“Are you ready to get back on the ice?” Valerie and Josie are watching them. One with a scowl on her face and the other with curiosity.

“I have one more week of rehab but I couldn’t stay and do it in Riverdale. I was so bored Arch.” He laughs, picking her up and spinning her. 

“So we start the first week of December?” she nods as he puts her down and kisses her cheek.

“I can’t wait I’m so excited.” The smiles don’t leave their faces for the rest of the day. Josie and Valerie leave, they have to be on a flight to Montreal. They bid them goodbye, it’s awkward with her and Valerie but she’s too happy to be back to care.

“Meet my new partner.” Archie jokes bringing in a sandbag attached to a hockey stick.

“She is so beautiful.” Veronica bends over in laughter.

She missed this.

**  
Everything changes when in a week she’s ready to skate. Her doctor said that she was probably ready but her mom and Penelope tell her it’s too early.

She ignores them because all she wants is to skate again. To skate with Archie.  
On the first day back, she messes up every single movement in the routine. She sees how hard Archie is trying not to show his frustrations but she knows him so well she can feel it emitting from his body.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers and that snaps something in Archie.

“Veronica! Stop blaming yourself for things! It isn’t your fault.” He’s never yelled at her like that, she’s visibly shaken. She sees Archie run his hands down his face.

“Okay,” she says making her way off the ice and running to the change room.

It doesn’t matter what he says. This is her fault. She’s broken.

viii.

Veronica runs off the ice and he feels like an absolute asshole. 

“Fix this.” Is all Penelope says, motioning to go after her.

He enters the change room slowly, hoping no one is actually changing.

“Ronnie?” She’s slumped in the corner, wiping away tears.

“I’m sorry, I know this isn’t your fault. I was just expecting to be back on top as soon as you got back that I forgot you had been off your skates for so long.” She sniffles and he sits down beside her.

“You didn’t even call after my surgery. You just texted. You ignored me for three months.”

"Communication goes both ways.”

“Yeah okay, but you didn’t get surgery and make your partner withdraw from competition.”

“I was just scared.” she scoffs

“And you think I wasn’t?” He knows that of course he knows she was scared, but he was scared that she would never come back and he thought if he could put that off for the longest time possible, it would hurt less.

“I didn’t know how to talk to you without making you feel bad for being able to skate.” 

“That’s funny, me too.” She smiles shaking her head

“How is it that even when we aren’t talking, we’re still on the same page?” 

“I have no idea. Ronnie?”

“Yeah?” she finally looks up at him and he so missed getting lost in her eyes.

“I missed you so much.” He feels himself leaning into her, his eyes making their way to her lips.

“Archie.” She leans in too, they’re so close to each other that he can smell her minty breath and her Chanel perfume. He draws in closer and his lips brush hers. She gasps a little, the moment is broken when she pulls away.

“We can’t,” she says standing up in front of him. “We can’t because the Olympics are in less than two years and we can’t risk anything getting in the way of the gold medal.” She’s breathless and her hands are shaking. He grabs her hand and pulls her towards him, burying his face in her stomach. He doesn’t know if he’s strong enough to stay away from her but he’ll definitely try.

“Okay. It’s okay.” She has her hands in his hair, gently stroking up and down. He looks at her, resting his chin on her body.

“Let's go fix me?” He could never deny her. He’ll stay strong because that’s what she wants. He’ll bury his feelings.

Maybe after the Olympics, it’ll be different.

Penelope and Clifford suggest that they start going to therapy to widen their communication and get taught techniques on how to deal with each other without blowing up.  
It’s pretty much marriage counselling. It works though, strengthens the bond they have more than it already is. It’s not a bad thing. It’s always good to make their relationship better. 

Their platonic relationship.

When they win the 2009 Canadian Championships, they can practically taste Olympic Gold. They should have to take into account that they were only competing against Canadian teams.

In the press room after the medal ceremony, some interviewer asks him how he managed to practice without an actual human.

“Uh, you know? It was easier than you think, it was kind of boring because the bag wouldn’t laugh at my jokes like Veronica does, but it was fine. We did win gold so it has to have worked right?” He has everyone in the press room laughing, Betty is trying to hold back more intense laughter by placing her face on Jughead’s shoulder. He only cares about Veronica’s reaction, he laughs when he sees her, head back, hand on her stomach. When Veronica laughs she laughs with her whole body. She’s shaking and can’t seem to stop.

“Oh no, Veronica has the giggles, we’re going to be here a while.” He says into the mike, another wave of laughter goes through the press room before everyone calms down.

“What about you Veronica, if this had happened to Archie, would you have skated with an actual human?” Veronica sets her face and pretends to think, he knows that she already has an answer, she just loves acting for the press. Her answer is going to be more serious.

“I don’t really want to think about that, I would never want Archie to go through what I went through. That being said, there is no next partner for me. Not only would it feel weird and kind of wrong, it’s not an avenue I want to go down.” She finishes strongly, the press having a field day with her answer, probably fuelling the relationship rumours.

The rumours started when an interviewer asked them if they had ever thought about dating and Veronica had answered with “someday, maybe.” Archie had followed that up jokingly with “I’ve been pitching that idea for the past 12 years and this is the first time I have gotten that answer, so that’s a win.” Of course, the media and their fans had taken it seriously and the rumours of them dating had started.

“Her answer was so much better than mine.” Archie doesn’t take his eyes off of her for the rest of the scrum. He’s trying really hard to push away his feelings but when she says things like that, he can’t help letting them resurface. 

 

They win silver behind Cheryl and Jason at Four continents and Bronze at 2009 Worlds. 

Being up on cloud nine and crashing into third place hurts. That’s one place away from not making the Olympic podium.

“It’s okay,” Veronica tells him on the bus ride to the hotel. “The Olympics are a clean slate. We can do this, I believe in us, now more than ever.” He doesn’t say anything just takes her hand as they sit in silence.

He sure hopes they can do it. He can’t imagine seeing Veronica’s face if they don’t.


	2. The Road to Vancouver 2010

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She dreams of Archie’s hand in hers, eyes never leaving each other’s as the Canadian anthem plays, Olympic gold medals around their necks. 
> 
> Today’s the day. The final day of their Olympic competition. He’s been the one trying to talk Veronica from going into panic mode but now, he feels like he’s about to have an anxiety attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm speechless at the many nice things everyone has said about this story! I am so thankful that you're taking time out of your day to read this. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this next chapter, I tried my best to get it out as quickly as possible.

Part 2:

i.

They get a bit of a break after their third-place finish at 2009 Worlds. She sees how Archie is still a little bit down so when they get to Paris for the 2009 Trophee Eric Bompard she sneaks into his hotel room with the spare key card he gave her. She had left him in the lobby a few minutes ago, he was talking to Jason about some NHL video game when she got her brilliant idea.

She didn’t want Archie to feel bad about getting Bronze. That Bronze didn’t somehow seal the deal that they would fail in Vancouver. That Bronze was just a reminder to work harder. Therapy has been doing her really well, they always tell her to think positively and now Archie has to deal with that.

She's sitting on his unmade bed and looks at how he’s already made himself at home. They have three days of competition and though she may feel shaky about the Original dance, she needs to do this for him.

She hears the door open and hears him drop something at the entrance. When he comes into view he jumps at the sight of her, startled.

“Jeez, Ronnie.” His hand is on his chest, and she sees the smile take over his face. She loves his smile, it makes her cry on the inside because it’s all for her and she can’t give herself to him 100% without risking everything they’ve worked for.

“What are you doing here?” He settles on the chair next to the canopy.

“You’re confident in all three dances right?” He frowns a little.

“No! No, Archie, that’s not what I meant.” The frown leaves his face, curiosity replacing it.  
“We should skip practice.” He laughs

“You’re kidding? You would never.” She fake scowls at him.

“This is my idea! Of course, I can.” He laughs again standing up and extending a hand to her.

“Fine, lead the way.” She took his hand, jumping up, barely able to contain her excitement.

Paris was her favourite city. Every time she came here, there was something new to see. It never seizes to amaze her. Now, she gets to show Archie her favourite place in the world. Besides his arms, but he doesn’t need to know that.

They leave the hotel, feeling like some sort of spies for looking around every corner in case they get caught.

“If Penelope finds out she’s going to kill you,” Archie says dragging her down the street and away from the hotel.

“Only me? I’m pretty sure you agreed to come with me.”

“Only because if I show up to practice by myself, it’ll be so obvious.”

“Yeah because both of us not being there is not obvious.” He laughs looking up at the skies above them.

“I get why you love it here so much.” She and Archie have been in Paris multiple times for competitions, but never have they been here alone. Someone's parent is always with them and when Archie’s parents are around they don’t really stray from the hotel. Understandably so, they never see him. Her parents, on the other hand, have always told her to take advantage of the travelling. To immerse herself in different cultures.

“It just calms me so much, I don’t know what it is about this city, but it does. I thought maybe it would calm you too.” He looks at her and she tries to read his expression. He’s anxious and that scares her, he’s never the anxious one.

“I don’t want to let you down again.” He tells her and her heart cracks a little bit.

“You never let me down, it just wasn’t our turn.” She uses his words against him and a small smile plays on his pink lips.

“I think I need four therapy sessions to calm the nerves I’m feeling.” She takes his hand and giggles.

 

“Therapy has taught me that all we need to do is talk to each other and be there, holding one another up.” 

“How do you always know what to say?” She feels his grip tighten as their walking slows when they reach a crosswalk.

“Lots of therapy.” Archie chuckles, shaking his head.

“Just us, Archie. In our bubble, just us.” He nods and they continue walking.

They pass by small bookstores and cool little antique shops, they try and play dress up but the store owner kicks them out, which only makes them cry with laughter.

They pass by a bakery and she really wants to eat anything freshly baked that has chocolate in it but Archie gives her a look that says ‘we’re already going to get yelled at for missing practice, we don’t want to get yelled at for messing with our diet plans.’ He’s right.

Her phone has rung a couple times but she’s ignored it, she knows he has two. They’ll deal with the consequences when they get back to the hotel and Penelope eats them alive.

Overall, they have a really nice outing and by the time they get back to the hotel, she can feel Archie already relaxing. Probably not for long because as soon as they get into their respective hotel rooms, she hears yelling from across the hall. Recognizes Clifford’s voice telling Archie to let him in. Not soon after, Penelope is at her door.

Their punishment is skating first, not by Penelope’s hands, no, it’s that they missed the draw.

Skating first is cursed. People don’t win when they skate first, it rarely happens. The best spot to skate in is last. That way you leave an impression on the judges, they give you the highest score and no one can impress them further.

When Penelope leaves, bidding her goodnight and telling her to be ready by 8 am, she brushes her teeth, changes into her pyjamas and makes her way across the hall to Archie’s room

They do this sometimes when they know the other is having a hard time settling into the competition. 

She knocks on his door this time because she knows he’s in there and she would prefer not to walk in on him naked before a competition. She wouldn’t be able to concentrate. It’s like he feels her presence because not even a second later the door swings open and he’s standing aside to let her in.

“I guess we’ll have to be like the third ice dancers to ever win by skating first.” She swears he can read her mind sometimes.

“Let’s defy the odds.” She sits on his bed and watches him walk in and out of the bathroom when he’s finally changed and ready to sleep, he gets in first and lets her crawl in as she gets comfortable and rests her head on his chest.

Being here, she feels the calmest she’s felt in a while, she thinks he feels it too. They might not be able to be together romantically, but they’re together in every other way. 

“Just us.” He says as they drift off to sleep.

She dreams of Archie’s hand in hers, eyes never leaving each other’s as the Canadian anthem plays, Olympic gold medals around their necks. 

—

“Skaters you may start your six minute warm up.” 

Archie and her hit the ice last, never skating before their 30-second hug. One time, they were so excited to skate that they didn’t sync to each other and they skated like a mess. They made fun of it after but ever since then, the hug has become a pre skating routine.

They go their separate ways on the ice, warming up separately before coming together to practice some moves from the program that they thought could use some extra work.

Every other ice dance team is doing the same thing, going through the dance in their heads, mentally preparing. There are a couple close calls. Cheryl almost gets taken out by a French team and Jughead almost catches Archie with his skate. 

Archie’s a bit upset because it messes up their momentum, Jughead and Archie might’ve been really good friends but on the ice, their competitors. 

“Hey, sorry Arch.” Jughead comes up to them, patting Archie on the back.

“Yeah, it’s alright, man.”

Jughead smiles and skates off to join hands with Betty and start running through more of their dance. 

Over the years of competing, Veronica has noticed how different she and Archie are at competitions than everyone else.

Her and Archie form a bubble around them where it’s just them, they can speak to each other with just a look and on the ice, they’ll speak the whole routine without altering the judges. Using keywords to ground each other or remind each other of things that they had struggled with prior. Sometimes to even reassure each other when one of them stumbled on a twizzle or stepped out too soon. 

Her favourite obviously being ‘just us’ they both say it to each other to remind one another that no matter what they’re in this together and they’re skating for each other not for gold, no matter how badly they want it. Because at the end of the day, if they don’t have gold, they have each other and that makes them winners in her book. 

‘Knees’ is another one, she hasn’t needed to be reminded of knee bends since she was 12 but she doesn’t mind that Archie always whispers it to her going into edges. She thinks it’s more of a comfort thing than anything else. 

Another thing that’s different about them is how Archie will sing the whole entire song, even if it doesn’t have lyrics. It adds another element to their skating, his facial expressions are out of this world, in her opinion he’s the best actor ever and when they retire he could go work in Hollywood and win an Oscar. When they first started skating, all people could talk about was how this kid would sing the whole entire routine. The judges don’t mind though, they say it adds charisma and a relatable aspect to the dance. 

Archie and Veronica are the people’s people because even though they zone everyone out when they’re on the ice, they bring people in, making them feel like they’re the ones dancing.  
They never lose eye contact, always making it seem like he’s singing to her, little do they know it’s just the character he’s playing that’s singing to her character. 

On the other hand, they have Betty and Jughead, their style is more put together, they still bring people in but it feels like they keep people at arms lengths. 

They also make eye contact during the whole routine and they ooze love because they aren’t characters in the ice, they’re just teenagers in love. 

Then you have Cheryl and Jason. Their dances are more classical, there's something more snobbish about them. They don’t talk to anyone or even each other, before they dance or after they dance. Veronica thinks it’s so weird to not have communication with your partner. And of course, to Penelope’s great dislike, they never look at each other.  
Which doesn’t seem to affect their score too much since they always place in the top three. Sometimes she finds it so ridiculous how far up Cheryl and Jason’s asses the judges are. It hasn’t hurt them yet, and she hopes it doesn’t hurt them anytime soon. 

ii.

They place first and maybe it’s because of their bronze at worlds or maybe it’s because Veronica looks at him just as they finished dancing and says “we just won” he had looked at her with amusement because they were the only ones to have skated but she was so sure that no one else could outskate them at that moment, that makes the gold feel so much sweeter. 

Betty and Jughead place 4th, half a point off the podium and he knows how much that stings. Knows that they’re going to drive themselves crazy looking at video from their skate, nitpicking at every little waver and placement of each body part. 

Cheryl and Jason come second and they disappear after the medal ceremony. They only see them again when they’re on the bus, on their way to the airport. 

Veronica is behind him sitting beside Josie who had won gold in her respective category and he was sitting beside Kevin who had also won gold. 

Usually all of team Canada rides to the airport together and then split up depending on their destination so when the two Americans step on the bus, with scowls on both their faces, it takes everyone by surprise.  
He can hear Josie whispering to Ronnie, something about a ‘queen bitch’ which Ronnie just shushes Josie. 

Kevin is the one to speak up, always the brave one. 

“Wrong bus?” Cheryl glares at him, silently demanding he shut his mouth. 

“If it wasn’t for my brother dearest, we wouldn’t be on this maple infested bus.” Jason had already taken the window seat so she takes the aisle seat in front of Kevin. 

Kevin leans in front of him and whispers something to her. Something about the Toni girl. 

Toni’s a singles skater, during her skate yesterday she had fallen and fractured something. No one knew anything about the situation really since they were required to stay in the competitive bubble. All they knew is that Toni had been to the hospital and had flown to Vancouver earlier today. He guesses Kevin is asking Cheryl because if anyone knows anything she does. 

Cheryl yells in a hushed tone and swats Kevin away. 

Kevin looks taken back by her outburst but waves it off.

“I can’t believe you dated her.” He says to Archie leaning into him. 

Veronica laughs behind him, “that makes 3 of us” Kevin turns in his seat to look at the girls behind him,

“That makes everyone who ever heard they were dating.” Josie and Veronica erupt into a fit of giggles, Betty and Jughead joining in. 

“You guys don’t understand!” Kevin laughs, waving his hand frantically “I got a call all the way from Wisconsin, from Midge wondering if the rumours were true.”

Archie rolls his eyes “you never told me about that, Kev.” Kevin looks at him, eyes wide.

“How was I meant to tell you that the whole of Team Canada thought that your relationship was ridiculous?”

“Midge is too nice to pry though,” Betty says 

“Well, Fangs was on the call too.” 

“That makes more sense.” Betty shakes her head and laughs, looking to Jughead who is trying to contain himself.

“I can’t believe all of you.” He’s laughing along with them, finding it crazy how they all thought Cheryl and him were doomed. They weren’t wrong.

 

He loves his team. They’re always cheering for each other and that’s so different from the tension every other country feels around each team member. Yes, Betty and Jughead are his competition and of course he wants to come in first every single time, but if he can’t come in first he’s rooting for them to be in that spot. 

Every other team member who isn’t in Ice Dance is much easier to cheer for. Single skating terrifies him because he can’t imagine being out there on the ice by himself, but if anyone is looking for him when he isn’t competing, he’s loudly whooping at Kevin when he takes his final bow. 

Pairs skating also terrifies him, he can’t imagine holding Veronica above his head and dropping her, or spinning too close, leg outstretched and having his blade hit her face.

He’s heard of the nightmares where skaters break their necks and faces end up with huge gashes across them, can’t imagine ever being the cause of that. 

So when Midge and Fangs skate, he’s always holding his breath, hoping that they land every jump and keep enough distance when doing their spins. They hadn’t qualified for this competition which bummed everyone out because it would be a while before they could all be together again since they trained in Wisconsin. 

“Well believe it.” Kevin and Betty say in unison.

\--

They get to the airport at around 7 am and he doesn’t feel ready for the long trip they’re about to make. 

He hugs Kevin and Josie, wishing them a safe flight to Vancouver and Montreal.  
He asks Kevin to pass on a get well soon message to Toni from both him and Veronica.

Veronica seems so sad when she lets go of Josie and watches both her and Kevin head to their respective gates. 

“It’s okay, Ronnie, we’ll see them really soon.”  
He doesn’t really know when Veronica became so close to Josie, he assumes it happened when they weren’t talking or when he was dating Cheryl. 

“I know, it’s just, you’re my best friend and so is Betty, but it’s different with Josie.” 

“How so?” Veronica smiles at him, linking their arms together and walking towards their gate 

“Well, for starters she isn’t my competition, so she doesn’t get sad when I get gold.” He nods, he gets it, it’s the same way he feels about Kevin versus Jughead. 

“And I’m a dude.” They’re trailing behind Cheryl and Jason who aren’t even acknowledging each other’s or anyone else’s existence. 

“Exactly!” 

“Yeah, I understand that.”

They stop at Starbucks for some coffee and fruit salads. He much rather be eating something else, but the season isn’t over and even if it was, the Olympic year is soon and Penelope would rather rid him of his stomach than have them eating anything that isn’t on the diet plan. 

They sit next to each other as they wait for their plane to board, Veronica is munching on some pineapple when she pauses to speak,

“I liked how emotional you were today, it really grounded me, that’s how I knew we did so well.” He swallows down some cantaloupe,

“Yeah? I’ll try to be more like that but I got shit for it.”

“What? From Penelope?” He nods and Veronica looks surprised 

“I thought you were amazing, I loved it.”

“She didn’t like it, said it was too much and I should try to reel it in.” Sometimes he wishes he was like Veronica when it came to his emotions on the ice. Veronica is so composed and elegant on the ice, she can do no wrong, her grace and poise mixed with her technique is excellent. He, on the other hand, can’t keep his emotions from bubbling over, he wears his heart on his sleeve and sometimes it works in his favour, other times his coach tells him to calm down.

“Well I loved it and I’m your partner so my opinion is the only one that matters.” She says matter of factly.

They call out that boarding has started so he gets up, reaching out a hand to her as she too gets up.

“I wish that’s how it worked” He winks at her as they make their way into the tunnel leading to the plane.

In every other aspect of his life, that is how it works.

iii.

When they get back to Ilderton they start prepping for Skate Canada. This was their last skate Canada before the Olympics and they needed this to go to the Grand Prix and book them a ticket to the games.

The anxiety is sort of building up, she can feel it, but she tries her best not to let it reach a boiling point because she can’t have it affect her next two performances.

Archie starts setting the moods for the training day, he’s either anxious, annoyed or playful, which in return makes her anxious, annoyed, or playful to the point that they can’t get anything done. She knows the pressure is getting to him so they start going to more therapy sessions to try and maintain all the progress they have made. 

“Veronica your edges aren’t digging in enough!” Is Penelope’s biggest criticism of her, it’s frustrating because she can get her edges correctly going into the lift but she struggles with them coming out of the lift and into the step sequence.  
Archie’s biggest criticism is that he’s struggling to make the lift look effortless. She can see his patience thinning out and she knows that sooner or later he’s going to explode.

The lift requires that he lift her by the leg, her other leg going over his head so she can turn around and face away from him, then have her fall into his arms so he can flip her and be facing the ceiling, sliding down his back, one arm around his neck until she’s in a sitting position, held to his side just so he can flip her again, so that she’s upside down, head inches from the ice as he spins both of them, her hand on his leg. 

“You’re struggling to flip her upside down, I can see it in your face! Again!” Penelope exclaims.

“Are you kidding? That was virtually perfect, sorry that I can’t keep a straight face if you wanted emotionless, you could've given this lift to Cheryl and Jason, god knows they don’t have feelings.” Penelope audibly gasps 

“Archie!” She says, going up to him and touching his arm, he ignores her and skates away. She knows by now, that it isn’t anything about her, he just needs a moment to cool down.

“It isn’t about emotions, it’s about how you look like you rather be anywhere else than skating with Veronica.” As soon as Penelope says that, she knows no amount of skating in circles to cool down will help him in any way. She looks at Penelope who looks like she regrets the words that just came out of her mouth. 

She can feel Archie come to a sudden stop and whip his head around to look at Penelope when he starts skating towards her, Veronica skates towards him to get as much distance between him and Penelope.

Her hand is on his chest trying to push him backwards, trying to get him to calm down, with keywords they learned in therapy.

“How dare you!” He’s pointing an arm above her head at Penelope but he isn’t pushing her out of the way.

“You can’t say how I feel about skating with Veronica, you can’t say that shit. You have no idea how I feel!” She can’t see Penelope’s face right now, focused on Archie, one hand now on his arm, rubbing up and down.

“Archie, it’s okay, we all need a moment.” He finally looks at her, his brown orbs searching her eyes for any sign of hurt. She isn’t hurt, nothing anyone says could make her doubt him, could make her doubt them. 

“It isn’t okay.” He pushes away from her and she thinks he’s going to yell directly into Penelope’s face but when he walks past her, off the ice, and into the change rooms, she breathes a sigh of relief.

She goes to leave after him but stops when Penelope places her hand on her arm.

“We’ll pick up tomorrow.” She doesn’t know why she was expecting some sort of apology, knows that Penelope is too proud to ever admit she’s wrong.

Veronica just nods and heads to the girls change room.

\--  
He’s waiting for her by her car when she exists the rink, she can’t help but smile and how pouty he looks when he stares at her.

“Coming over?” 

“I wouldn’t have waited for you if I wasn’t waiting for that exact offer.”

“You always know how to get what you want.”

She hears him say “not always” but decides to ignore it as she gets into her car.

After all, she doesn’t really want to discuss whichever girl he’s failing at getting.

“Did you carpool to the rink today?” She asks him, driving down the familiar roads that lead to the condos where she has been living for the past three or so years and where he has been living for five.

Archie had helped Veronica move from her boarding home a few months after she turned 18, he had moved into his place on his birthday. It wasn’t that he didn’t get along with his boarding family, but more of needing his own place to feel like home away from home.

“Yeah, I didn’t feel like driving so Jason drove me.” Jason, Cheryl, Jughead and Betty also lived in the condominium, there were so many skaters that it had been dubbed ‘skaters village.’ They could technically all carpool but since everyone has different schedules, it makes it hard.

“It’s so nice that you both can get along and be friends. Cheryl and I are past the point of saving.”

“It isn’t as bad as it used to be right?” In their younger years, when they first moved here, Cheryl would torment her, she didn’t anymore, she had evolved and even if she did, it wouldn’t work on Veronica anyway.

“No, she’s fine, it’s just that we never really got that chance and it’s too late now.”

“You could always try.” 

“I could, but would she?” Archie shrugs, dropping the subject.

When they get to her place, he’s the perfect gentleman, like always, running around her car to get the door for her.

“Well thank you!’ He smiles at her dropping a kiss to her cheek.

“I’m going to quickly run to my place and change before we do dinner?” She nods, seeing as he sprints across the small street to his place, that falls two places to the right of hers.

Her place is meticulously clean, she can’t ever come home to a messy or dirty place without driving herself insane. She takes sets her skating bag in the closet on the floor and makes a dash for her room, hurrying so that she could cook something up for Archie and her.

She takes off her workout clothes and pulls on an oversized sweater that used to be Archie’s but is now hers. The sweater is from the Riverdale rink and whenever she puts it on she feels closer to home.

Not because it’s Archies, of course.  
She slips on some fuzzy PJ bottoms and puts up her hair in a bun. She gives herself a once over in the mirror and once she’s satisfied she heads off into the kitchen to see what she has to feed Archie.

Archie’s probably suggested dinner because he forgot to go grocery shopping and has nothing of substance left.

She finds some frozen chicken and decides that it’ll have to do. She’s seasoning it when Archie walks in, having left the door unlocked so he could do just that, she isn’t surprised when she feels him behind her.

He wraps his arms around her torso, his chest pressed against her back, as he presses a kiss to her cheek.

“Smells good.” She laughs, shaking her head at him.

“It’s still frozen.” He laughs too but stops when she sees what she’s doing.

“Ronnie, I think you’re supposed to season the chicken when it isn’t frozen.” She stops, turning in his arms, having him so close to her face makes her gulp and pull so that he releases her.

“I’m not a professional chef, what do you expect me to do?” Archie grabs the chicken, ready to put it in the microwave to let it thaw.

“I expect you to let me do the cooking.” She fakes offence but lets him do as he pleases.

“Fine, I’ll go pick a movie.” He raises an eyebrow at her and she knows that he just picked the movie.

“Moulin Rouge it is!” Moulin Rouge is one out of two movies that they had gone to see together in theatres, they were obsessed when they first saw it. They wanted to dance to a song from the soundtrack so bad, but since they were so young, their coaches had vetoed such a riske sound.

Maybe now that they were older they could use it. Maybe for next season.

After they’re done eating and the movie's credits are rolling, she can sense Archie wanting to tell her something.  
“Yes?” he smiles and continues to ponder his words.

“When Penelope said that about me, about how I feel when I’m ska- I just want you to know that, that is not at all how I feel.” She smiles, her head resting on his chest, she can hear the soothing rhythm of his heartbeat.

“Of course I know that, Archie. I would never doubt that all you want to do forever is skate with me.” She tries to ease the tension and she can feel Archie shaking with quiet laughter.

“Seriously though, I don’t want people thinking that.” she lifts her head up to make eye contact with him.

“Who cares what people think, as long as we know the truth it shouldn’t matter.”

“I love you, kiddo.” If he hadn’t said the nickname, she would’ve died.

“Just us, right?”

“Right.”

 

iv.  
After he exploded at Penelope, he started to try and consciously remember not to cringe when the lift came. The lift becomes one of their best. They did it perfectly each time, better than they did in France and if they won gold there, they would be unstoppable now. His facial expression doesn’t look like he’s struggling as much and even Penelope is happy with the routine.

“Perfect! I can’t get enough of that lift!” They had just finished a run through, Penelope was clapping, Cheryl and Jason watching them, waiting for their practice to start. He hugs Veronica and whispers that he’s proud of her.

“Thank you,” Veronica says to Penelope, nodding at Cheryl and Jason as she passed them.

 

“That was great!” He pulls her into his arms again and places a kiss to her head. 

“I felt so good about that skate. I’m shaking.” She’s still in his arms, and he can tell how excited she is because she is shaking.

“I just want to go to be in Kitchener already so we can skate and knock everyone's socks off.” 

“I know!” she exclaims, jumping up and down, “I wish that could have been a competitive skate.”

“I want skate Canada over with so we can get the Grand Prix over with and start 2010, ready for the Olympics.”

“All I’m going to be able to think during Christmas is how there are less than two months until the Olympics.” He agrees with her, Christmas this year would be weird. They would go back home to be with their families but in reality, all they would be thinking is how much training they are missing out on.

“In other news, I love our skate but I am so bored of skating to Symphony number 5.”

“Yeah, but we have the Flamenco, which is exciting.”

“I’m sure I would be just as tired of that one if we had practiced it 21 million times in one day.”

“But we’re so good at it that thankfully we don’t have to practice it that much.

“Can you imagine if we sucked at both of them?”

“Nope. At least we don’t suck anymore.” The corners of her eyes crinkled, letting out a small giggle she hugged him once more before telling him that she would see him later.

She was meeting up with Betty for dinner and had to hurry home to change.

He catches a group of guys stare at her as she walks past. It’s funny to him because she always says how no one looks at her like that, but when she walks into a room, all eyes are on her. She’s just so oblivious to it. It probably comes with the territory of being too busy to go out on dates. Skating has always been her number one priority and she’s so focused on it she never sees guys fall all over themselves to, simply hold a door open for her.

 

He’s thankful she doesn’t.  
\--  
They arrive in Kitchener Ontario for Skate Canada International. Veronica disappears as soon as they get there but he would bet a million dollars that if he called Josie’s room, that where she would be. He finds Kevin, Fangs and Midge in the lounge, Kevin’s boyfriend Moose is there too, having made the trip on his days off to support Kevin.

He likes the guy, think’s Kevin and him make a good match. He lets Kevin know this with an approving head nod. About an hour passes by when they’re joined by Jughead and Valerie. Valerie sat next to him and Jughead took a seat next to Midge, nudging her in greeting. 

“I wish we were all here but we’re missing your partners and Josie.” Fangs says to Jughead and him.

“They’re probably three drama’s in, eyes swollen and noses red,” Jughead says making everyone laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Toni says coming into view, leaning against her crutches.

“You came!” Valerie leaps up to hug her, careful not to tip her over.

“I am so tired of being on house arrest, I begged for them to let me come and support.”

“Well, we are so glad you’re here,” Midge says, sitting down from having hugged her.

He can feel her before she even speaks, his head turning to look behind him as Veronica and the three other girls walk into the lounge. He can’t help the huge grin that appears on his face. Turning back around he can see Kevin looking at him with raised eyebrows. He tries to cough away his smile, hoping nobody else saw.

“Toni?” Veronica says standing behind where he’s sitting, she gives his shoulder a squeeze letting him know that she’s there as if he already didn’t know.

“V!” Veronica hugs Toni, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“I’m so happy you’re here, I couldn’t imagine not seeing you for another 4 months.”  
“Speaking of months, three months until the Olympics.” Fangs adds, looking directly at Veronica and him. He doesn’t know why he singled them out, it isn’t like they’re the only ones in the group who are going to the Olympics but it felt strangely intimate. Like he should’ve told them this secret that wasn’t a secret in private.

“3 months.”

\--  
They sit in the Kiss and Cry and wait for their score for their Compulsory Dance score,  
they end up with a 40.69 which leaves them in first. They hug each other and give each other out of breath cheek kisses because there’s still two more days of competition, it’s far from over.

The next day the Ice Dance competition is first which means that once they’re done they can sit and cheer for their teammates.

They await their scores again, with one more team to skate after them, they score 60.57 on their Original Dance, almost five whole points ahead of the team currently in silver medal position. When the other team gets their score, Veronica and Archie are still in first place, their lead growing by almost 10 points. They try not to get too cocky.  
Once they’re changed and hydrated they go sit in the stands and watch Fangs and Midge skate.

On the third day of competition, he knows they’re feeling the nerves, he also knows that if they skate perfectly, there’s no real way they could blow their lead.

Skate perfectly they do, the lift that had given them so much trouble in practice felt like a breeze to perform. Everything fell into place.

They’re sitting in the Kiss and Cry, for the final time of the 2009 season and when they hear their scores, they embrace each other so tight that neither of them can breathe. They don’t care.

Their Free Dance is scored 103.2 for a total combined score of 204.38 points. 19.31 points ahead of a French team in silver position. Later they find out that they are the first ice dancers to receive a perfect 10.0 under the ISU. They’re ecstatic, later they barely make it through interviews because Veronica is so happy she can’t stop laughing. In turn, making him laugh. The media doesn’t get much out of them except for “we’re so happy with our skate and each other, we’re so proud.”  
Not even a week later, they’re off to Tokyo for the Grand Prix.  
They fall again at the Grand Prix, silver medal behind Cheryl and Jason. Who had missed out on Skate Canada International.

They go home to Riverdale for Christmas, he loves spending time with his parents and childhood friends whenever he can. In the back of his head though, all he can think about is Canadian Championships in a few weeks and the Olympics in a month.

“Are you excited?” His mom asks him over a cup of hot cocoa, on Christmas day.

“I’m more nervous than excited, I think.” He laughs it off, taking a sip of the rich cocoa.

“No matter what I am so proud of you, this is your dream Archie, it’s a month away.”

“I know I talked a lot about the Olympics and yes they have always been in the back of my head as a goal but. I think my dream was just to hold Veronica’s hand as long as I could, I don’t think I was thinking Olympics.” His mom eyes him with a glimmer in her eye that he can’t quite decipher. 

“You waxing poetic about Veronica will never not get my hopes up.” He groans and throws his head back. His parents are always bugging him about how one day they’ll be married.

“We’re just friends.” Mary nods, shaking her head and putting her hands up in surrender.

“How’s your friend doing?” Archie rolls his eyes but goes on to tell him everything he knows about Veronica’s Christmas.

Canadian Championships are a blast, they only get to compete against other Canadian teams which is good because he can’t stop thinking about how well Cheryl and Jason are doing but also bad because he wants to know how well they’re doing.

They place first in all three dances, earning a total of 221.95, a whole 37.25 points ahead of Betty and Jughead’s silver medal position. They set the Canadian record for Free Dance and combined total. Needless to say, going into the Olympics in this position feels really good.

 

v.  
They arrive in Vancouver and being surrounded by so many Canadian athletes feels inspiring. Everyone has a different story of overcoming adversities to finally be here and for the first few days she feels like crying whenever she sees a Canadian flag because she might not have been born here, but her boarding parents, her friends, her teammates and the people of Canada have supported her and embraced her with wide open arms that she can’t imagine ever not feeling at home in wherever in Canada that she may be.

There are three days until they compete and she’s trying not to lose her mind and just enjoy being here. She cheers on Kevin’s boyfriend Moose who wins a gold medal in Moguls skiing, she goes to curling events with Archie and watches as Josie wins Olympic Bronze after a hard fall in her short dance. Tears are in her eyes and she tries not to let anyone see, but she is so happy for her friend.

Later, when they meet up, Josie shows her the Bronze medal that she is so proud of and they just cry together in their room.

“I am so proud of you for pushing so hard and getting on that podium.” 

“Thanks, V, it means a lot, I know it’s bronze but-” Veronica cuts her off with a shake of her head 

“No, Josie it’s amazing, it’s an Olympic medal.” 

\--  
They’re skating last after Betty and Jughead and she can barely breathe.

“I’m so nervous.” her voice trembles, she shakes out her legs, stretching out her quads.

“Hey, look at me.” She looks at Archie’s face, he looks serious, so she takes both his hands and stands in front of him.

“We’ve got this, this is what we’ve been working so hard for. We can do this.” She nods her head, still unsure, he senses it.

“Ronnie.” Her head turns away from him when she sees Betty and Jughead leave the ice and head for the Kiss and Cry to get there scores.

“Hey,” he lets go of her hands and puts his hands on her face, making her look at him.

“Don’t listen to the score, block it all out. Get in the bubble, it’s just us.” This time she just wraps her arms around him and rests her head on his shoulder. He does the same to her as they start their 30-second hug. As she tries to match Archie’s relaxed breaths, she can feel the world melt away. The loud arena full of hopeful fans fades away and it’s just her and Archie. No matter what it’s just them and they’re skating for themselves.

“Skaters you may take the ice.” The lady over the announcer says. Penelope gives them words of encouragement and pushes them onto the ice.

When she meets Archie at centre ice and they get into their starting position, he whispers “just us,’ under his breath.

When the music starts, it really is just them, her movements matched to his as they skate as shadows of each other. Two souls with one beating heart. She can do this.

She starts getting too in her head about how the Tango had never been her favourite and Archie notices.

“I’m here,” he tells her and she’s pulled right back into the momentum of the dance, finally getting lost in it.

Archie’s lips brush hers when they’re coming to their end position and it isn’t like this is the first time it has happened, they sometimes play characters where the dance requires them to ‘kiss’ but at this moment, at the Olympics, she feels a jolt of electricity start at her lips and then go through her whole body.

She doesn’t look away from Archie for a few seconds, still lost in their bubble but when she finally comes out of it she can hear how loud the arena is. Canadian fans whistling and hollering at them, the thunderous clapping, shaking the building.

Archie pulls her to his side and gives her a quick peck on the temple as they make their way to centre ice to take their bows and thank the crowd. 

She feels exhilarated as they make their way off the ice, reaching Penelope and Clifford, giving them hugs as they tell them how well they did.

They put on their skate guards and make their way to the Kiss and Cry, she can feel the anxiety trying to sneak it’s way back into the pit of her stomach.  
“That was great,” Archie tells her, as they sit waiting for their scores. She only nods in acknowledgement, too out of breath to say anything.

“I don’t really care.” He says, and she doesn’t know if he means he doesn’t care about their score or something else but she agrees nonetheless.

“Me neither.” She isn’t sure if she’s lying.

Penelope is saying something about how beautiful she looks on the screen and she says a quick thank you only looking up at the screen where the scores will be displayed.

“The scores please.” The announcer says, making Veronica start to shake her legs.

“They have earned 42.74, a new seasons best.” Veronica smiles, she looks at Archie on the screen and she can see that he looks a little bit disappointed at being in second place. 

“Two more dances, this is right where we want to be.” She looks over at him and gives his arm a reassuring squeeze.

“Yeah, this is good.” He smiles but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

They come in second, one point behind Betty and Jughead and one point in front of Cheryl and Jason. Which is surprising to everyone involved.

\--  
They’re in the warm-up getting ready to skate their original dance and if anything, she’s more nervous than she was yesterday.

“I can feel you overthinking literally everything.” Archie spooks her out of her thoughts, coming from absolutely nowhere.

“Hi.” She gasps out, trying to get past the sudden lack of air.

“We’re going to warm up, we’re going to get off the ice, go backstage and listen to Hall and Oates, and when the time comes, we’re going to hug, sync, and skate.” He softly says taking her hand and pulling her around the ice.  
“You really don’t want me to panic huh?” A line appeared between his brows, questioning her.

“You never willingly listen to Hall and Oates.” 

“I don’t understand how you like them so much, this is a real sacrifice for me.” She gently slaps his arm

“Come on, let’s do the step sequence one more time.”

\--  
They’re skating second last this time, they emerge from backstage when the skaters on the ice are just finishing up. She averts her eyes from any scoreboard and immediately grabs Archie to go into their hug.

This time around she doesn’t have to try as hard to zone everyone out, she knows what’s at stake here, knows they have to get a good score to get a shot at gold tomorrow.

“Bubble.” Archie breathes into her neck, the way it tickles her, relaxing even more.

“Just us.”

Making their way onto the ice Archie talks to her until they get to the centre.

“I’m so proud of you. I’m proud of everything you’ve had to go through to get here. I’m proud of us.” 

“Me too, no matter what, I am always proud of you.” 

“Flamenco time.” They smile at each other before getting into position, waiting for their music to start.

Veronica loves the beginning of this dance because she gets to whip around her red skirt, this is probably her favourite dance, not only because of the costume, as beautiful as it may be, with the black sheer top, decorated with sequins a floral patterns, an open back and the red skirt but because of how intense it gets towards the end.  
Their movements are sharp and exaggerated, the speed increasing as the dance goes on, the crowd gets into it the more it goes on and she finds it hard to hear the music but she’s done this dance so many times she doesn’t even need it.

Archie is so lost in the dance, she can see all his emotions coming out and the fierce excitement that plays on his face.

He yells so loud when they finish and get into their final pose, that she would think the whole arena heard him, but because the arena itself is vibrating, his yell went ignored.

He sweeps her into a crushing hug, twirling her on the ice. His smile going for miles.

They receive a standing ovation and she swears she could cry.

Sitting in the Kiss and Cry, she thinks that, that felt like a first place skate, but she doesn’t say anything as to not jinx it.

 

“Veronica Lodge and Archie Andrews have received in the original dance a score of 68.41, a new seasons best, for a total of 111.15 points and are currently in first place.”

She feels a yell try and rip through her but she contains it, just letting a smile break out on her face as both her and Archie nod their heads in agreement with the score.

They overtake Cheryl and Jason by almost two points, which is a welcome lead.

They get up to wave at the crowd and go wait backstage for the last couple to skate. 

Betty and Jughead are last to skate, Archie and her wait quite impatiently for someone to come tell them if they’re still in first.

After a few minutes, one of Penelope and Clifford’s assistant coaches walks into the room, a smile on his face and they know that they’ll enter the free skate in the lead.

 

vi.  
Today’s the day. The final day of their Olympic competition. He’s been the one trying to talk Veronica from going into panic mode but now, he feels like he’s about to have an anxiety attack.

“Get out of your head and into the bubble, Archie Andrews.” She’s putting on her skates, their backstage getting ready to go out there and skate one final time for the Vancouver crowd.

“I need some words of wisdom.”

“We leave it all out on the ice, we fight our hardest and no matter what happens, we will walk out of here winners, because we have each other and that is all I need.”

“You’re the best partner ever.” 

“I know.” 

“We get to show the goose off to a mainstream crowd of Canadians, think they'll like it?” They had invented a move called the ‘goose’ where she stepped up on his thigh, put one knee on his back, and spread her other leg out behind her, arms moving rhythmically to her side as he kept moving, portraying that she was flying.

“I don’t know if you’ve been out there at all, maybe skated in front of them, but we could insult all their mothers and they would still like us.” His nose wrinkled and he shook his head.

“We shouldn’t insult their mothers though, Canadians are too nice.” The corner of her mouth quirked up.

“You’re right. Now let's go get our medal, whatever colour it may be.” She grabs his hand and drags him from behind the makeshift curtains.

He avoids looking at any scores and decides to just get in the zone. Veronica is talking to Penelope but as soon as he grabs her hand and motions for her to come with him she does, instantly fitting her head in between his neck and shoulder. He breathes in her scent, syncing their breathing for one last time at the games. When they pull back her eyes are glimmering with so much hope, it makes his heart beat with excitement and for whatever is to come. 

Gold would be perfect, gold would seal up the last 13 years so very nicely. The Olympics and the gold medal go hand in hand, it’s everything they have worked for, people don’t work their lives away, to come to the Olympics and not win. Gold isn’t everything though, Veronica’s right, even if they were to finish in 20th, he would still feel like a winner because he got to spend almost every day of the last 13 years with her palm against his own.

They take the ice like so many times before, skating around a few times, the voice over the arena announcing the score for the couple before them. He speaks to her, distracting her and himself from hearing it, the roar of the crowd helping them avoid it.

“We made it this far, and we should be so proud of each other for that.” she nods in agreement and he continues “I can’t imagine being here with anyone but you.”

“Me neither, only you.” They keep skating, a small warm up before they start skating. Their hands are firmly clasped, hers are a little clammy but that’s natural for her.

“Our next skaters are skating to Modern Symphony number 5.” They start getting closer and closer to centre ice, waiting for the announcer to introduce them.

“Representing Canada, Veronica Lodge and Archie Andrews.” He lifts both their arms up, greeting the Canadian crowd one last time, this is rare, skating on home ice at their first Olympics. It’s like the stars aligned for them. 

Her eyes never leave his, his forehead touches hers as a sign of support, he’s still saying things to her but he isn’t quite sure what they are anymore. They skate away from each other and into position, Veronica in front of him, her arms start up above her head, she brings them down slowly and stops there movement at her sides, his down by his side, palms up, his eyes fixed on the ice. 

The music starts playing, he looks up at Veronica’s back, sees her start to move her arms up, graceful and elegant. He goes up to her, bringing his hands down on her collarbone and dragging them up to her shoulders, her body twists around to face him and their characters look at each other like it’s love at first sight. He kisses her hand and gets down on one knee as she steps backwards, bringing him with her.

 

“Together.” He says to her during the step circle sequence before going into the lift that had given them so much trouble, months before. They executed without fault and once it’s over he feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders (literally), he can finally relax into the rest of the dance. Soon, the dance is coming to an end and he gets down on one knee again, as Veronica falls into him, laying over his knee, facing him, eyes locked to each others, getting into their final position, their faces next to each other as they look up at their arms up above them, interlocking their hands and bringing them to rest on their chests in between them.

He’s breathing so heavy and he can feel Veronica is too. He feels so happy about their skate that he might explode.

“Thank you so much.” He doesn’t know if he says it to the crowd, to the people back home or to Veronica, he’s still too in the moment to care.

They stand up out of their position and he holds her hands at arms length

“Are you okay?” She nods, beaming up at him and then the screaming audience.

“Good job, I’m so proud.” He tells her bringing her closer to him, she finally hugs him, her arms fully around his neck, a smile still permanently on her face. He closes his eyes, wanting to remember this moment forever.

She pulls away so that they can take their bows and get off the ice.

Once they finish thanking the crowd, they make their way over to Penelope and Clifford, hands still interlocked. They get bombarded with hugs, kisses and laughter from both their coaches as soon as they reach them, a billion photographers trying to capture every detail. Veronica is off the ice first, trying to get her skate guards on with shaky hands. He jumps onto the boards, ecstatic about this moment. He sees their families in the crowd and waves frantically, trying to get Veronica’s attention and failing, everything is happening too fast.

They climb up into the Kiss and Cry and wait the longest 30 seconds of his life.

“Everyone back home we love you. Ilderton, Riverdale, Thank you!” He yells into the camera, Veronica still smiling next to him.

“Veronica Lodge and Archie Andrews have earned 110.42 which is a new seasons best.” He doesn’t know if it’s enough to win, doesn’t know if the next couple will beat them, he does know that that’s the best version of that skate that they’ve ever had.  
So he jumps up, letting out a big “yes!” He hears Veronica who is sitting down beside him say a small ‘oh my god’ leave it to her to be able to contain her emotions when they’ve accomplished what they just did on the biggest stage of their career.

“Veronica Lodge and Archie Andrews have a total competition score of 221.57 and are currently in first place.” He sees Veronica hug Clifford, the smile still plastered on her face, she repeats her earlier sentiments. 

He turns to her to hug her and she meets her halfway, standing up and embracing him. This is a different type of hug, he’s never felt her squeeze him so tight, nails digging into his upper back. He lifts her up shaking her a bit, his head in the crook of her neck, whispering a million thank you’s as he sets her back down on the floor.

He pulls back to give her a kiss on the cheek only to pull her back in when he sees her beautiful face covered in pure joy.

“We just won the Olympics!” She says, still in his arms. He doesn’t know how she knows, there’s still one more couple to go, but he’ll trust her. He always does. They’re still in each other's arms when Penelope and Clifford hug them both. The best group hug he has ever been in. Once they can gather their bearings, they wave at the crowd who hasn’t stopped screaming since they stepped off the ice. 

Now they have to wait for Betty and Jughead to skate. See if their friends will join them on the podium.

They wait on the sidelines, interviewers trying to ask them questions about how the skate felt, as fellow ice dancers and assistant coaches come up to congratulate them. He can barely concentrate on anything, let alone comprehend what they’re asking.

They’re guaranteed a medal, they just have to wait to see what colour it will be.  
Cheryl and Jason are also guaranteed a medal, a few people away from them he can see that they’re waiting anxiously as well.

He feels as if he’s in a dream, a dream where he’s with Veronica and nothing can change the fact that he has never been this happy, not even a silver medal.

It’s just him and Ronnie, standing in front of some interviewer that they’re trying hard not to ignore but can’t help. Penelope and Clifford having gone to hug Cheryl and Jason and wait for the results with them.

He doesn’t know why he does it, but when he hears the score, before the order of the podium is announced, he turns to Veronica and with his best acting skills and a solemn face tells her their in second place.

“What?” She says to him, so genuine and sweet and confused that when he looks back at that moment he’ll realize that, that’s when it happened, that’s when he knew.

“No!” He says laughing so hard he thinks he’s going to puke out his lungs as he brings her in for a crushing hug, his head back. He can feel her laughing against his shoulder.

“I believed you!” She says pulling away from him laughing. He lets her go and bends down with laughter, he can’t seem to stop, he’s so happy that they accomplished this, that they are now Olympic Champions, but most of all he is so happy he did it with her by his side.

Everything after that is a blur, people he knows and people he doesn’t know come up to him to congratulate him, he catches his mom and dad wiping tears from their eyes, sees Betty and Jug disappear into a mob of people congratulating them on their Bronze medal. Veronica cry laughs and he realizes that that might be his favourite sound in the world.

Cheryl and Jason come up to them and they each respectively congratulate the other. He notes, that he has never seen Cheryl so happy for a silver medal. He thinks he would be happy too if it was an Olympic silver medal.

He sees Veronica jump into Betty’s arms, both of them with tears in their eyes, Veronica trying to reel them in while Betty lets them flow freely.

“We won the Olys!” Veronica exclaims, Jughead coming in from behind her to join the hug, “No, Ronnie, you and Archie won.” no mal-intent in his voice, all jokes and respect.

Archie walks up to join the hug, burying his face in Veronica’s hair.

Anyone on that podium won the Olympics. He’s just glad it’s the four of them up there, representing such a wonderful country.

After they cry some more during the national anthem, and never once let go of each other's hands as they wave the Canadian flag around the ice in a victory lap. After a million pictures are taken of the six of them, then the four of them, and then of just them, they learn that they made history.

They not only pass Cheryl and Jason with 5.83 points they receive four perfect 10 marks from the judges in the program components, two for the performance and execution and two for interpretation, something that no one had ever accomplished under the International Judging System. They also become the first Canadians and North American ice dance team and the youngest dance team to win the Olympics, and the first ice dance team to win an Olympic gold medal on home ice.

“How does it feel to just be 20 and 22 and be the first ice dancers to win gold in your Olympic debut since the first time Ice Dance was at the Olympics?” Someone they can’t see because the lights are too bright and shining in their faces, asks them.

Veronica takes the lead, he’s too tired and too overwhelmed to answer half the questions they’re being asked.

“That’s so crazy, Archie and I keep hearing of all these stats that we were never made aware of before because we were so focused on just getting to the games in the first place.” She pauses and places her hand on his. She’s trying to keep him from zoning out.

“I think it is an amazing feat to have that title and others like that but that’s not what we came here to do, we were so happy to even just be here and to now have are names attached to those titles is a nice accomplishment, we feel great.”

“Everyone is dying to know about your relationship status.” Veronica visibly tenses, the hand that was on top of his, now under the table, on top of her bouncing knee.

“We’ve been skating together for 13 years he’s my best friend, like a brother.” Archie almost chokes on thin air. A brother? How could she even say that? A brother wouldn’t have almost kissed her, a brother wouldn’t feel all these emotions about her.

Veronica turns to him, trying to tell him something in their silent communication but he fails to understand it, probably from the haze he’s currently in.  
“So you’ve never dated or thought of dating?” The interviewer asks expectantly and Veronica’s about to answer but he beats her to it.

“We’ve never crossed that line” he pauses, wanting to hurt her as much as she’s just hurt him. “We would never dream of crossing that line.” He says it so calmly, a small smile for punctuation, that the media would never know it was complete bullshit. She knows him too well though, he can tell that she hears the animosity in his voice, only she would hear it.

The questions move on to Betty and Jug, his eyes never leaving Veronica’s figure who just stares ahead of her, looking completely composed.He knows better than to fall for it.

Maybe it didn’t hurt her as much as it hurt him because she never felt that way about him, the realization makes him feel numb.

When the junket is overall he can think about is sleep, the stress of the whole week, of all fours years, finally getting to him, making him crash with exhaustion. Everyone wants to celebrate and they have Gala practice in two days and the actual winners gala performance in 5 days but all he wants is to find his single bed and sleep for 15 hours. 

\--

“Archie,” Veronica calls after him when they get to Canada House. She had tried to talk to him on the bus but it was hard with all their friends and coaches around.

He stops but doesn’t turn around, he stares longingly at the elevator that would lead him to his room. She walks around him and stops in front of him, eyes wide, teeth chewing on her red lips.

“Not now.” Is all he says trying to make it around her but she stops him with just one hand on his arm.

“We should be so happy right now! We won! We should celebrate.” He examines her face, she’s nervous. He nods slowly, thinking of what to say.

“Usually girls don’t like partying with their brothers so I’m just going to go nap, you have fun.” She scoffs at him

“Are you seriously mad? You’re going to let what I said taint the Olympics for us?”  
“It’s not tainted, I’m happy we won, I’m happy we did it together, I need to sleep.” 

“You’re mad at me?” it’s his turn to scoff

“What do you expect Ronnie? Do you not remember what happened in the change room? Why we couldn’t cross the line? It wasn’t because you thought of me as a brother.” 

“Arch- I know okay? I remember what happened, I just said that to get them to stop asking, every other question is about us dating, I was thought that maybe if I gave a definitive no they would stop.” 

“You could’ve just said no.” He hates how they’re doing this in the middle of Canada House, where anyone could hear and he’s so so tired that he would say anything to get to sleep.

“I know, I’m sorry. You’re my best friend and I never meant to hurt you.” Best friend. Sometimes he thinks how cruel the world is to put her right in front of him, but not let him have her. Because that’s what it is, they’re supposed to be in each other's lives, he knows that much, only as best friends. If they tried anything more, they would fall apart, fall because spending every single waking moment of the day with someone is already a struggle, add a romantic relationship to that and they wouldn’t last under the pressure of the media, judges, coaches, parents. He wanted her in his life always, can’t imagine it any other way. So when he says his next words, he really truly means them, even if his heart doesn’t agree.

“You’re my best friend too, Ronnie, and that’s the way it should always be.” He doesn’t wait to see the reaction on her face, doesn’t let her speak, he just wraps his arms around her, hugging her tight and dropping a kiss to her head.

“I really need a nap, we’ll party later tonight, yeah?” He feels her nod her head against his chin, pulling away he smiles and heads for the elevator doors.

He sleeps until the next day.

 

vii.

She doesn’t ever really party, her life is always booked up, planned out for her to the point that she’s lucky if she gets five seconds alone. So when they win gold, she has an excuse to have a few drinks and dance until her feet hurt. When Archie doesn’t show, she has more than a few drinks and lets loose like she doesn’t have a care in the world.

Or she tries to fool her heart into thinking, Archie hadn’t just stabbed it.

She finds out from Jughead that Archie was still past out when he left their room. She’s glad he’s at least resting, glad he isn’t partying somewhere she isn’t.

When the clock strikes 3 am, Betty has to drag her to their room, she sees double of everything and she feels like she’s flying Like her brain is a bag of marbles that someone had dropped and hadn’t bothered to pick up.

“It’s not like I wanted to you know?” She hears Betty respond faintly but keeps her thoughts coming, she can’t stop them even if she tried.

“It couldn’t have worked anyway, I mean we aren’t retiring, we’re still going to compete, maybe even go to Sochi, so what was the point of him saying we could never be together?” Betty’s trying to get the door to their room open, with her credit card.  
Betty makes a face at the card before digging in her purse for the actual key card.

“I doubt he said that, V.”

“Not in so many words, the point is what was his point in telling me we should just be friends forever and ever and ever when I know that already?”

Betty finally gets the door open and they both stumble in, stepping over shoes, skates and random bags.

“Why can’t you just tell him you want to be more than just friends?” Veronica looks at Betty incredulously.

“Betty, I’m not stupid! If I tell him that my heart will just be crushed further and I’ll never be able to look at him again, making this,” she grabs the black leather box her gold medal is in and shakes it, “our last medal ever.”

Betty sighs, plopping down on her bed, getting ready to take her shoes off.

“Idiots.” she hears Betty say as she enters the bathroom, closing the door and looking at herself in the mirror, she thinks about how maybe they are.  
Considering how much she drank yesterday, her hangover could be much worse. Betty, on the other hand, is out of commision. Veronica’s woken up by her excessive puking sounds in the bathroom. She takes an aspirin just in case and gets a Gatorade from the mini fridge to try and replenish her electrolytes. She’s about to do the same for Betty when there’s a knock on the door.

She gives herself a once over in the mirror before throwing all caution to the wind and throwing the door open.

Archie’s standing there, in his team Canada jacket, looking more rested than she’s seen him for a while. He looks so good. Her heart flutters. Stupid heart.

“Peace offering?” He shows her the tray of coffees and the brown bag he’s holding.

“There better be a chocolate croissant in there, that’s the only way you can have peace.” She grins, opening the door wider. “Though I don’t think I can eat with the sounds Betty’s making.

Archie scrunches up his nose “Yeah, Jughead is still knocked out.” he takes a seat on her bed and pulls out a chocolate croissant, offering it to her.

“This is why you’re my favourite.” she sets it down on a napkin and takes a sip from the coffee cup he hands her. 

“You seem okay, though.” She nods, swallowing what she now knows is hot chocolate. Sometimes it scares her how well he knows her. Has been scaring her for years.

“Well we both know that I may not party that much but I do know how to hold my alcohol.”

“Very true.” She sits next to him on the bed and sighs. She never wants to feel at arms length with him, never wants to not feel safe and free when she’s talking to him. The tension their almost kiss a year ago had caused yesterday was a very good reason why Archie was right about just being best friends.

“About yesterday-” She cuts him off, the sooner this conversation can be put to rest, the better.

“There’s nothing to talk about, you and I are always going to be good because we’re each other's best friends.” A line grows between his eyebrows, she studies the way he takes all the information in.

“Okay, good.” He places a hand on her knee, the corner of his mouth twitching.

“So what’s this I hear of you falling off a chair and is there a video I can laugh at?”

This feels good. Feels like they can forget everything that happened and just be them again.

“It was Kevin’s fault! He stupidly took his medal to the party and it was just hanging from his pocket, I dove to save it from hitting the floor.” Archie snorts and she has to remind herself why they’re staying just friends.

“It’s a gold medal, Ronnie, not a baby.” She gasps, her hand rests on his shoulder, shaking him slightly.

“Oh please, if your medal was about to fall, you would save it.” They start another round of laughter when Betty comes out of the bathroom.

“Do you happen to have aspirin in that bag of yours, Archie?” Veronica quickly stands up off the bed and runs to her bedside table where she had left the aspirin for Betty.

“Here you go, champ.” She places the aspiring in Betty’s hand and gives her a Gatorade.

“Thanks.” Betty practically whines. 

“Alright, here, have some sustenance, you’ll need it before we go take care of Jug,” Archie speaks up, handing Betty a breakfast sandwich from Tims. Betty takes it, looking curiously at Archie.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he might be dead.”

Betty just rolls her eyes and digs into her sandwich.  
Veronica examined him as he talked to Betty, the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed, or the way he almost always through his head back when he found something funny. This is how she always wanted it.

They would be okay.

\--  
The Gala practice was just them fooling around on the ice with all the other medal winners, catching up and congratulating everyone else they hadn’t seen. Kevin, Josie, Archie and her had won gold, along with a Russian team in pairs skating, so they would give a small speech thanking the fans before they moved into the group dance.

The group dance was a mess, everyone was too distracted talking to each other to pay attention, so when it was time for a run through, most of the dance was improvised. 

She and Archie ran through their gala dance, luckily they had enough practice with it that it was just to touch base.

Their gala skate was choreographed with the Olympics in mind. They wanted to showcase how different they were when they first met each other, but how music and dance had brought them together.

So for the exhibition skate, she was a ballerina and he was a hockey player. It started off as him watching her dance ballet to a classical song, confusion written all over his face, as she tried to teach him the waltz. Then it would be his turn to dance to ‘Everybody Dance Now’ with his costume being a hockey jersey and jeans.  
Until they both come together, with both their styles and form a beautiful partnership.

The gala comes and goes and they dance with such freedom in front of such a supportive crowd that she can’t help but feel like it’s the perfect way to end this chapter of their lives.

Just like that, everything they have been working towards for 13 years, is over, and just like that, they’re back in Ilderton getting ready for Worlds, with the biggest target on their backs.

She doesn’t know what will come next but she’s happy to just skate with Archie for as long as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to explain some things about all the different dances because I don’t feel I explained it too well.
> 
> The Compulsory Dance is when every team basically has the same step sequences and technical elements to see how they compare to each other and who is better at each skill, plus the ISU chooses the music they dance to.
> 
> The Original Dance theme is still chosen by the ISU but the competitors can choose their own music if it fits in with the required rhythms. 
> 
> The Free Dance is true to its name, the competitors can choose their own music, rhythms and program themes. There are required elements that should be added to the routine for a full score.
> 
>  
> 
> “I think my dream was just to hold Tessa’s hand as long as I could. I don't think I was thinking Olympics” -Scott Moir
> 
>  
> 
> Links in case anyone wants to watch the actual dances.  
> Olympic Compulsory Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ0_sEIphqs  
> Olympic Original Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WDXmqBqXYQ  
> Olympic Free Dance and win: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sDyVBtLE3A  
> Exhibition Gala Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si5X7feKxgs


	3. Life Before Sochi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The whispers are so loud they almost feel like screams.
> 
> “Bribes,” “corrupt,” “bought judges,” are a few of the things she hears. 
> 
>  
> 
> “It’s actual sex on ice.” Mandy says, “I love it.” Yeah, he does too, which is exactly the problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm back with another chapter, this was really hard for me to write because I had to re-live Sochi. So as you will see, I made that the least amount of writing in this chapter. I hate thinking about Sochi, those were some dark, sad times.
> 
> Anyway, I want to thank everyone for your wonderful comments, they honestly fuel my soul and motivate me to write. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Part 3.

 

i.

There’s no rest for the wicked, or professional athletes. After Vancouver is over, they have to compete at worlds a month later. It should be easy to take on the monster that is Worlds for the newly crowned Olympic champions. It isn’t though, because Veronica’s legs are hurting again, because apparently they were feeling uncomfortable during their Olympic run and she didn’t tell anyone. The team doctor knew and he had told her that she could skate, so she did. Yes, she skated and they won gold, but she was in pain and didn’t tell him.

“I don’t understand why you keep hiding that you’re hurt, specially from me.” He says to her one day. They’re at their hotel in the masseuse’s room, getting all stretched out and ready for the competition tomorrow.

“Because it was the Olympics and if you had known you would be more worried about me than performing.” Her voice is strained, probably from the fact that her leg is being pushed up against her chest.

She isn’t wrong, he would’ve been to focused on how she’s doing on the ice and to be careful with lifts.

“How do you feel now?” He raises his eyebrows at her, pushing her to be honest. 

“I’m actually feeling okay. Not 100 percent, but I feel like I can skate. I was good at practice right?” 

“You were perfect at practice, no one would even know you’re lying to them.” he sarcastically says.

“I’m the best actress out here.” He nods picking up the hotel phone to order them some food.

“Room service.” Veronica whispers excitedly. Her other leg being worked on now.

“Yeah, hi, can I get two chicken salads and one diet pepsi- is coke okay?” he pauses to ask Veronica, she nods her head in agreement, “she said yes but she rolled her eyes so,” he jokes, mostly to her because he doesn’t think the man on the other line understands.

“And one water and a chocolate milk-” Veronica’s mouth falls open letting out a little gasp, he smiles and continues on the phone, “and can we change the diet coke to a chocolate milk? She’s a bit jealous, a bit immature, it’s okay though. Thanks, bye now.”

Veronica is quietly laughing when he hangs up the phone, now laying on her side, her thigh being worked on.

“Bye now.” she mocks him, a breathy laugh falling from her lips.

She’s so beautiful he could stay here forever.

\--  
The next day, when they’re getting into position at centre ice, Veronica turns to him, eyes wide and panicked. No one else notices because her press conference smile is still glued to her face.

“My quad feels tight.” Archie nods, preparing to skate to the referee and ask her to give them a few moments to decide if they would still skate.

“No, wait, I think I can do this, I just- if I mess up, don’t be mad at me.” There music starts playing, he shakes his head at her, silently telling her that he could never be mad at her.

She skates perfectly, earning them the first place of the Compulsory dance with 44.13 points, which improves their personal best from the Olympics.

Everyone goes back to the hotel except for Veronica and him. He’s waiting outside the makeshift doctors office, while she’s in there getting checked out. He knows her though, even if the doctor tells her she shouldn’t skate, she will because of how great they did today.

He waits around 20 minutes before she comes out, not even limping, still in her costume.

“And?” he takes her hand as they walk to the change rooms.

“He says if I feel up to it I can skate the competition.” 

“Ronnie-” She cuts him off.

“I can do it, I’m up for it.” He sighs, knowing there's no way he can talk her out of it. She is the most stubborn and driven person that he knows.

“Okay, if you’re sure.” They come to a stop in front of the change room, she gives him a quick nod and smile before she walks in.

\--  
They win the original dance with 70.27 points, a world record under their current judging system. The next day, they place second in the free dance with 110.03 points, 0.46 behind Cheryl and Jason. 

Because of their world record though, they claim their very first World Championship title, scoring a total of 224.43 points, 1.40 ahead of Cheryl and Jason.

After their worlds win, they go back to home to Riverdale for some of the off season. They skate at the skating club and train at the local gym. With Penelope and Clifford staying in Ilderton, they have to learn to discipline each other. She’s better at it than he is though, he’ll let her get away with anything.

In June they find out that the ISU had decided to abolish the compulsory dance. When they find out, they’re taking a break, sprawled out on the mats they were just doing an an workout on. Veronica’s on her phone and when she gasps he immediately stops looking at his own to see if she’s okay.

“Are you hurt?” He says, now using his robes to support him up

“The Compulsory dance is gone!” He doesn’t understand what she means right away, but as soon as he remembers the rumours that had been going around ever since the Olympics, it registers.

“You better not be joking.” He knows she’s not though, the grin on her face giving it away 

“It’s gone!” She sings. It’s not that they hate the Compulsory dance, it’s that it takes so much time and money from the other programs. It’s also boring for the fans, having to see every team so the exact same routine. 

“Finally!” He exclaims, laying back down and going to text Jughead about it. 

The summer passes without a bump in the road, everything seems so perfect, it’s too perfect. A week before they’re set to go back to Ilderton, Veronica calls him, a shaky voice and a hint of panic.

She doesn’t know how it happened, she was fine one minute, doing some cardio on the elliptical, the next she was lying on the floor in excruciating pain.

She’s set to get surgery in October. 

They withdraw from Skate Canada.

“I’ll be back in time for Canadian Championships.” She says to him one day, over the phone. She’s back in Riverdale, while he’s at the rink in Ilderton.

“We’ll see Ronnie, we might need more time to practice, maybe we’ll go to Four Continents.” She sounds so dejected and sad, probably from being stuck at home, unable to move.

“I guess.” Her voice changes slightly, into a lighter tone, “so are you bringing back the most beautiful girl we have ever seen?” He blanks at her question, having no idea what she’s talking about.

“Ms. Sandbag hockey stick?” He chokes on the belly laugh trying to escape him. People are around and he doesn’t want to scare them.

“Yeah, she might make a comeback, there’s no real girls to dance with here, they’re all preparing for comps.” He cringes at that, doesn’t want to rub it in her face, but she doesn’t seem to care.

“I bet!” she giggles, “okay, I have to go eat something or I’m actually going to die, I will talk to you tomorrow, at the usual time.”

“Alright, will do, bye Ronnie, love you.”

“Love you too Archiekins.” the line goes silent and he sighs. He misses her already, it’s going to be a long couple of months. He’ll need to find some sort of distraction to keep his mind occupied from missing her.

Training like an insane person might be the thing to do it. He’s so caught up in his thoughts, he doesn’t see when someone walks up to him.

“Hey stranger.” He snaps out of wherever he decided to go and smiles at the person in front of him.

“Hey, Valerie.”

 

ii.

She finds out from him this time that he’s dating someone. She hates that he told her three days before her surgery. Makes her wish he would’ve waited, so if she’s thinking, she would rather die than see them together before she goes into surgery, it’s his fault.

When she wakes up, she’s obviously happy to not be dead, to be able to probably still skate and hold Archie’s hand.

“The doctor said, you can come home tomorrow.” Her mom says walking into the room and setting down some food for them.

 

“Really? So soon?” Her heart is giddy from the information, she could be back on the ice in just a couple weeks, back on the ice and in Archie’s arms. 

“Yeah, it went really well so there should be no complications.”

“I’m so happy to hear that, I can’t wait to get back to Ilderton.” Her mom hands her some grapes, she plops one right into her mouth before adding, “you think I can do rehab there?” Her mom gapes at her,

“Sweetheart, I think it would be best if you don’t travel so soon, I know you’re bored but you don’t want to irritate your legs.” She plops another grape in her mouth, her eyes twitch a bit from it being a little sour.

“Okay, yeah, that’s fine.” It isn’t, not really, but whatever.

\--  
Two weeks to the day she’s back in Ilderton, back in her condo, getting everything setup, organized and airing out the place. She had forgotten to give Archie her keys when he was back in Riverdale, if not he would’ve done it and she wouldn’t have come home to a place that smells faintly of dirt and old lady perfume.

She’s just unpacking when she hears her front door open, she pokes her head out of her room, to see if she could see who it was from the stairwell. Her eyes catch red firey hair, her heart speeding up.

“Archie, if you try to scare me, it’s too late, I already saw you.” He snickers, looking up at her from his place where he’d frozen on the stairs.

“Damn, you and your crazy hearing.” He climbs up the rest of the way and engulfs her in his arms. He’s come from practice, so he smells faintly of sweat and body spray, it’s intoxicating.

“I missed you kiddo.” He emphasizes it with a kiss to her head and she falls in deeper, trying to pull herself out of the haze.

“I missed you too.” so much. She thinks, wills him to read her mind.

“How are the legs?” He releases her from their hug, leaning against the wall.

“They honestly feel great, I’m so ready to get back out there.” 

“Me too, I missed dancing with you.” His eyes flashed with something unknown to her, she decides to ignore it, not in the mood for an intense conversation.

“Let me finish unpacking and we’ll head over there?” He nods in agreement and makes his way into her room, sitting on the edge of her bed.

“Betty said Jughead’s cooking so we might all end up in the hospital at the end of the night.” His eyes sparkle with amusement, he’s so beautiful, she thinks.

“Please no, I just got out of there.” 

She’s so happy that they can pick up where they left off this time. Happy that this wasn’t like last time when they were both scared of talking to each other for fear of upsetting the other. This time though, they talked every day, updated each other on how her rehab was going and how training was going for him. 

She’s happy that their fear and his girlfriend hadn’t gotten in between them.

\--  
It feels like she only just arrived back in Ilderton when she’s headed back to Riverdale for christmas. She loves being home, loves seeing her family and friends, but she can’t help but see it as a waste of time because if christmas wasn’t in the way, they would have a chance at Canadians.

Archie comes over on the 23rd, they’re laying on her bed and they spend hours talking about things they missed out on from being regular kids. She says schooling. He looks at her like she’s out of her mind and she just smiles, looking at the walls of her childhood bedroom.

“Sometimes I just wish I could have gone to university.” He’s not moving next to her, the only thing that lets her know he’s still there i the heat coming off his body.

“You had excellent grades in every grade, you could go to university.” She doesn’t want to talk about her anymore so she asks him what he wishes he had.

“School too, but the more social aspect of it.”

“So parties?” she tells him, elbowing him on his side.

“Parties.” He laughs, her mom walks in then, letting them know that Archie’s parents had arrived and that dinner was ready.

\--  
Before they know it they’re back in Ilderton, Betty and Jughead had invited them over, a tradition they had formed after the first christmas break when Veronica had locked herself out of her place and Archie had no food at his place.

“Have you made up your mind about Canadians?” Veronica is so lost looking at Archie who is looking at something on Jughead’s phone, that she has no idea what Betty is even saying.

“They’re great people.” She offers up. Betty snickers next to her, finally capturing her attention, she stares at Betty questioning why she’s laughing. It looks like Betty is going to say something, but she stops herself before continuing.

“I meant Championships. Canadian Championships?” Oh. Veronica nods her head in understanding, inwardly laughing at herself.

“We haven’t talked about it but we’re most likely going to withdraw. There’s just not enough time for me to train the programs.” Betty takes a small sip or her water, mischief in her eyes.

“Gives Jug and I a chance to win.” Veronica gapes at her, she kind of hates when this happens. She knows Betty’s only kidding but it scares her to think that one day she won’t be kidding, and she’ll lose her friend to the intense rivalry of the skating world.

“Very funny, you always have a chance.”

“I’m kidding, V.” Veronica is silent, looking back up at Archie who had noticed the atmosphere change a little. He’s asking her if she’s alright, she nods.

“Did you obsessively look at videos of Cheryl and Jason, while you were bedridden?” Betty jokes again.

“Not really, I did watch their performance at Skate Canada though, they were really great.” 

“Don’t worry about it, if you guys had been there, you would’ve beaten them again.” she sighs, playing with her hands.

“I don’t know, they caught our score.”

“You would’ve just beat your own score, like you did at the Olympics and then at Worlds.” She knows Betty means no harm, this is what skaters talk about, their lives revolve around the sport, they live and breathe it. For some reason, Veronica doesn’t want to continue talking about it.

“I registered for a law degree at the university of Toronto.” The words come out without her permission, rolling off her tongue to change the subject.

“What?” It isn’t Betty, of course it isn’t Betty. Archie is standing in front of her, holding two plates of food.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It doesn’t matter anyway, it was on a whim, I did it for no reason.” She finishes, standing up and heading for the bathroom. 

She wishes she could lock herself in there for the rest of the night.

 

iii.

Veronica doesn’t come back for a while, so he excuses himself to go check on her. He finds her sitting on Betty’s staircase, staring into the dark.

“Did you get in?” He asks, his voice too loud in the silence.

“What?” She’s looking up at him, her eyes sad.

“Did you get into the law program?” She bites her lip, probably thinking about what to say to him.

“Yeah I did actually.” It should scare him that she’s thinking of other careers, but he knows they can’t skate forever. All he feels is pride.

“Of course you did, you’re the smartest person I know.”

“Do you think I could do it?” 

“You can do whatever you want. I’ll support you no matter what, I know you would do the same for me.” He nudges her with his leg, asking her to move over so he can sit. As soon as he does, her head is resting on his shoulder. 

“They would work around my skating schedule, they have online classes and I would only have to attend my one class a few times every month. It’s going to take me forever to graduate but i think it’ll be worth it. I really want this, you know?” She rambles excitedly and it’s obvious to him that she wants this.

“You’ve thought it through this much, so yes, I do know.” He can feel her hand trying to find his in the darkness. “I’m with you.”

“Thank you.”

He might not be scared of her finding another career. He’s going to have to find one eventually too, they’ve often joked of skating until their 80. He realizes though, that he’s scared of being left behind.

What if skating is the only thing that connects them?

\--  
The familiar chords of ‘El Tango de Roxanne’ play in his ears. He’s messing around on the ice, moving to the music, waiting for Veronica to be done her checkup with the team doctor.

He sees Betty say something to him as she steps on the ice, her hand interlocked with Jughead, as she drags him to the ice. He notices that they aren’t holding hands the skating etiquette way and he feels a twinge of envy in the pit of his stomach. 

He doesn’t know why. He does have someone to hold hands with the non skating way. So why does he still feel bitter looking at Betty and Jughead’s hands? 

He takes an earbud out to signify that he hadn’t heard what she said.

“She’s got the official green light. She’ll be out soon.” 

He nods in thanks, putting his earbud back in and follows Betty and Jughead’s lead, starting to go around the boards, still giving them enough space to not feel followed or smothered. 

He hates when at competition, skaters follow him and Veronica so closely that they can’t break away to start going over their routine because if they suddenly stop, they’ll get taken out by a mess of skates and limbs. 

A hand sneaks into his own, syncing immediately to his pace. He looks over at Veronica, she’s beaming at him with the smile that's reserved for him. 

He takes his earbuds out and smirks at her, stuffing them in his hoodie pocket. 

“Excited?” He asks her, repositioning his hand so their fingers are interlocked. See, him and Veronica often did hold hands like this, mostly at practices but the thing is that Betty and Jughead could do it off ice. It still shouldn’t bother him though.

“So so so excited. I missed this so much.” They’re smiling at each other and he’s getting lost in her eyes when Betty brings them back to earth. 

“You’re going to melt the ice, how will we practice then?” He clears his throat, glaring at Betty, avoiding looking at Veronica as to not make it more awkward.

“Oh hush Betty. I’m just excited to be back!” A bit of a sharpness to her voice, that only he would notice. 

Betty smiles at her, all of them still skating, Cheryl and Jason now joining them on the ice. Penelope and Clifford setting up cameras, probably to record everything just so they can point out how much they hate it all.

“Okay! Everyone go through the routine once, Cheryl and Jason will get music rehearsal first, Betty and Jughead after and Veronica and Archie last. Single skaters start at noon so use your time wisely.” Penelope orders everyone, as they each break off to their own space on the ice, just to start without hitting anyone. 

Him and Veronica are about to start when Penelope calls them over. Letting go of each other’s hands they skate towards her. 

Veronica reaches her first, grabbing her water bottle and taking a sip.

“How’s your choreo?” Clifford says to Veronica.

“Mandy sent me video of her doing my part, and I’ve practiced it, the only thing would be the lifts and syncing up.” Archie is looking intently at Penelope, trying to see if what’s coming is good or bad. 

Mandy is there choreographer and her and him had put together their programs, with Ronnie’s input, obviously. Mandy had decided to send Ronnie detailed videos of step, spin, and circle sequences, twizzles and arms. Which Ronnie really appreciated because while she was doing rehab in Riverdale, she could also practice some of the dance moves and memorize the program. Both of them were visual learners, to be a dancer you kind of had to be, but Ronnie was most of all so the videos did help her. 

“Okay, I want to see you guys go through it, we’ll film you to see where you need work, start with the FD.” Penelope said, Clifford agreeing. 

When they withdrew from Internationals, Veronica was so sad that they wouldn’t get to use ‘hip hip chin chin’ as there Free Dance since the 2011-2012 season needed new programs that Mandy had suggested they move ‘hip hip chin chin’ to the short program, they alterd it enough to fit the theme and have all the required elements. The news made Veronica so happy that every time they danced it she couldn’t stop thanking Mandy. Their free dance was all new and used ‘funny face’ as there main soing.

They don’t have their music playing over the speakers, so he does the next best thing, he sings ‘Funny Face’ so only Veronica can hear, just to guide them through the steps. 

Penelope doesn’t hate it. Neither does Clifford. 

He doesn’t know when that changes. 

iv.

She understands that they’re defending Olympic champions and that the target on their backs is big and bleeding red. She also understands that this is a competition and that it’s only natural for competitors to want to beat them. She understands that no one goes to a competition to come in 6th. If they do they’re lying. 

What she doesn’t understand though, is when their coaches start paying more attention to the other skaters. She would understand if it was just Cheryl and Jason. But it’s Betty and Jughead too. It’s the single skaters that don’t even compete against them. It’s the other two ice dance teams that didn’t even make the Olympics. 

She thinks maybe that’s why, maybe they think that since they already have Olympic gold, they’re satisfied.

Wrong. They’re hungrier than they have ever been. 

Even so, the Olympics are a little under four years away, and her and Archie haven’t even decided if they would go to another Olympics. So why would they start showing favouritism now? Why now and not 5 years ago? Or 2 years from now? Maybe that’s why her and Archie stay, because they wouldn’t show who they favoured 4 years from the Olympics, giving her and Archie a chance to leave. They wouldn’t, right? 

—  
“Four continents is a week from now. How are you feeling?” Penelope still cares about her health. Another reason to stay 

“I feel really good.” Penelope nods and walks away. She wanted them to be able to compete right? 

She doesn’t know why she’s doubting them so much, thinks she’s just paranoid.

—  
They place first in the short dance and she doesn’t care that she sees a flicker of disappointment in Penelope’s face. She doesn’t care because Archie is next to her, all sweaty and sticky, but happy and kissing her cheeks and forehead over and over telling her how proud he is. 

So when she feels a sharp pain start at her quad and reach her back, on a lift from their free dance, she hesitates before skating away from Archie who has gone into a step sequence and skates towards Penelope who is looking at her with concern.

In all their years skating Veronica has never quit during a competition, she always pulls through. She can feel Archie skating to catch up to her as she reaches Penelope.

“It’s my quad. Something in my back.” Archie’s hand lands on her back, rubbing up and down in comfort. 

“What do you want to do?” Clifford asks.

She shakes her head, not knowing what to do. Avoiding eye contact with Archie. She hates disappointing him. She feels him leave her side and skate towards where the referee is stationed. 

He’s back in a few seconds, hand on her back again. 

“Whatever you want to do.” He whispers to her, the tv station camera so close to her face she can’t even think. 

A lady comes over and asks the man with the camera to move back. 

“You have to decided. There’s only a few minutes.” Veronica nods her head. Squatting and shaking out her leg to see if it helped. 

“I can’t. I’m sorry.” Archie nods his eyes telling her that it would be okay. He makes his way across the ice and with his arms signals that they’re done. He shakes hands with the referee and comes back to her. They still have to bow, so he drags her to the centre of the rink and they thank the crowd for their patience. 

They withdraw from Four Continents and probably lose their second title. It’s her fault. 

She voices her self blame and disappointment to Archie. 

“You have no control over your condition, no matter how much you train, it won’t change it okay? It isn’t your fault.” He’s scowling at her and she feels like a little kid again, getting chasied by her mom for skating instead of doing homework. 

“That’s what I hate the most. That I have no control over my stupid circulation.” 

She sulks the whole way home. Archie makes her promise that the sulking would stop the minute their plane landed in Ilderton. 

She keeps her promise by faking it. 

—  
They find out that the problem with her quad was coming from her pelvis and back. They change the split lift that was causing the pain to an upside down lift. She feels much better after that. Finally able to let go of Four Continents and focus on the competitions to come. 

Archie goes to Montreal for the weekend. Usually it wouldn’t bother her if he was going to Riverdale for the weekend but Montreal means Valerie and Valerie means Veronica is second fiddle. 

Of course she isn’t but she couldn’t possibly know that yet. 

—  
They go to 2011 Worlds and they come in second to Cheryl and Jason, behind them by 3.48 points which is a huge margin compared to what it used to be. She feels like crying, not because it’s silver but because of how far their scores are from each other. 

“Maybe the split lift was getting us those three points, and I ruined it.” She’s laying on Archie’s bed in his condo. He’s packing up for the season, he’s making a stop in Montreal before heading back to Riverdale. She’s already packed and waiting for Kevin to text her that he’s on his way to her house. 

“Ronnie, you’re being ridiculous, this isn’t your fault.” She doesn’t argue. Doesn’t want to ruin the happy mood he’s in. 

“I should go, it’s almost seven, Kevin will text soon, what time does your train leave?” She pauses, “wait how are you getting to London?”

“Jughead is driving me, it’s on his way home.” She nods, pushing herself off his bed, walking up to him, she drops a kiss to his cheek. 

“I’ll see you in a week?”

“I get home late sunday, so we can probably meet up Monday to work out?” He calls after her. 

“And food!” She calls back, leaving his place and jogging to her own. 

\--  
Kevin doesn’t come alone, his boyfriend’s in town for some ski competition and he brings him and one of his ski buddies along. 

She doesn’t really mind, his friend doesn’t hurt to look at. 

She thinks Kevin’s plan all along was a double date, at least that’s what this feels like. It’s just for fun. They’re all friends. She couldn’t give her whole self to this man even if she tried. Part of her, the part that is stupid, the part that she’s unwilling to even acknowledge on most days, belongs to Archie. More than just their partnership, more than 14 years. It’s something deep within that she’ll just ignore. 

This is just a fun night, with friends. 

v.

“Who’s Reggie?” He tries to hide whatever it is that creates the sharpness in his voice. Hopes that she doesn’t hear it. It’s the first time he’s heard of this Reggie guy and they’ve been back home for about a month.

When he heard the singles girls whispering about Veronica dating someone, all he could do was sit through the sudden wave of nausea that had hit him.

“Moose’s ski friend.” She says so innocently and sweet. It makes the feeling in the pit of his stomach grow, causes the buzzing in his head to get louder.

“There’s rumours.” She doesn’t look up at him, continuing to sharpen her skate.

“There’s always rumours, this rink is filled with teenagers who can’t mind their own business.” The sound from the machine, shielding her voice a bit but he can tell that she’s annoyed.

“Why are you getting so defensive over Moose’s friend?” There’s sarcasm in his voice. God, he’s so stupid, why can’t he just push back all these feelings into their nice little box in the back oh his head?

“Maybe because I wanted to date him for at least two months before my relationship became everybody else's business.” She stops sharpening her skate, turning towards him, a warning in her eyes. Don’t do this. 

“So it’s true? You’re dating some dude you barely even know?” He does it.

“We’ve been talking on and off ever since the day we met, he asked me out two weeks after and we haven’t stopped talking since.” The pit gets bigger, he feels like swatting away whatever is buzzing in his brain.

“You haven’t even gone out with the guy since!” 

“He’s in town all the time, last weekend when you went camping with your buddies? And the weekend before that when you were in Montreal? He was here.” He doesn’t know which one feels worst, the pit or the buzzing. He’s going to vomit. 

“It’s a long distance relationship, they rarely work.” It’s a statement said with such finality to it, like he had just won this argument that shouldn’t even be a thing, that when she says her next words he’s stunned.

“You’re in a long distance relationship.” She says, eyebrow raised, challenging him to go on. Why is he stunned? He knew that, knows that. Valerie is in Montreal working her ass off and still staying up late talking to him everyday. She doesn't deserve this, doesn’t deserve the box of feelings for someone else, no matter how beautiful and special that someone else may be.

He sighs, dropping his head, she deflates, letting out a breath, she backs off from her challenge.

“Archie, I really like him, I want this.” Before the buzzing in his head makes his brain melt, and the pit in his stomach swallows him whole, he pulls her into a hug, more for him than for her, to keep him level headed.

“Okay, Ronnie.” She pulls away to go back to sharpening her skates. The buzzing makes him feel faint, the pit gnawing at his insides with full force.

He throws up in the garbage can of the men’s change room.

\--

“This is all my fault, I can’t believe this. I am the worst possible friend.” He’s usually opposed to people blaming themselves for things they have no control over but Kevin is the reason Veronica even knows of Reggie’s existence.

“It isn’t your fault and it’s not like i care.” He can’t see Kevin over the phone but he can imagine his mouth falling open, from the sound he just made.

“If you didn’t care you wouldn’t have called me crying to tell me that, and I quote, ‘Veronica is dating the skier you brought to her house for dinner that one time.’” 

“I’m not crying, Kev.” He’s at his house rummaging through his covers, trying to find something to eat. His mom and dad had apparently forgotten to go shopping.

“Whatever.” Kevin stops talking, his voice getting distant, telling someone he’ll be right out. 

“Look, I have to go, and I know you’ve built this whole image on denying your feelings for Veronica, but you either need to fight for Veronica or realize you have a girlfriend.”   
Kevin’s words hit something in him, he’s right, he knows he’s right but Archie isn’t willing to jeopardize the 14 year relationship he and Ronnie have. 

“I do not forget about Valerie.” He’s frowning now, not so much about being called out but about finding the cheerios box empty.

“I try so hard to ignore the lies coming out of both your mouths sometimes.” He isn’t really paying attention, to focused on finding food.

“What?” Since when is all the cereal gone? He had only eaten twice from this particular box. 

“Nothing, I have to go, talk to you soon.” He agrees and waits for the line to go silent. 

Kevin is wrong. His feelings, the feelings he doesn’t quite understand just stem from concern, he just wants what’s best for Ronnie, who’s to say that Reggie is the best?

Who’s to say he isn’t? 

He refuses to think that.

\--  
“They said I need another stupid surgery but obviously they aren’t working so I’m going to get through this a different way.” Veronica barged into his house, skin glistening from the scorching heat of the summer. Her hair up in a messy ponytail, her chest heaving.

“Did you run here?” He asks stupidly, distracted by how ethereal she looks.

“Yes, that isn’t the point.”

“What alternate methods are there besides surgery?” She sits down, rubbing her legs up and down.

“I talked to some specialists and they said there’s different movements we can add, use different muscles that we don’t necessarily use so that it won’t hurt me and I won’t stress my body.”

“How?” His voice is muffled from the piece of toast he’s munching on.

“It’s just about stepping differently and finding ways to use those different muscles.”

“Are you sure this will work?” She looks so hopeful, her brown eyes looking up at him from where she’s sitting, glistening with determination.

“I’m not, all I know is that the surgeries aren’t and one of these days I’m going to go in and not come back out.” Her even thinking that scares him. He can’t imagine a world without her in it. Can’t imagine his world.

“Okay, I’ll do whatever I can to help.” 

The rest of the summer is spent learning how to use every body part possible.

\--  
“More bend!” Penelope is having one of her days where she’s in a really bad mood, she’s yelling at everyone about every little thing. Him and Veronica are used to this kind of attitude from Penelope, ever since the Olympics, he’s still trying to wrap his mind around that change. But the rest of the teams are surprised at being yelled at. 

“Ridiculous!” 

“I just grabbed her hand!” Jughead spits back incredulously.

“On the ice you hold hands like professionals not like dating buddies!” Jughead lets go of Betty’s hand and starts skating around.

“Did you seriously just walk away from me?.” A pause, “Cheryl! What was that!?” Penelope forgets Jughead and skates towards Cheryl and Jason.

“At least if she’s yelling at everyone, we get a break.” Veronica says from beside him.

“Yeah, feels great.” They’re back to training for the new season and he has never seen Veronica so agile and ready for a skate. Her natural remedies and the new training they had been doing, obviously working.

“The Finlandia Trophy is in a month, so I’m excited for that.” They’re twirling around each other, warming up for when Penelope decides it’s their turn to skate.

“Me too, we’re finally back.” she nods, smiling at him, her skates shooting ice at him.

“Funny, you’re so funny!” He rushes towards her and tackles her, pulling the back of her sweater over her head. He hears a muffled ‘this isn’t hockey!” and laughs, letting her go and helping her put her sweater back in place.

“You’re lucky Penelope is yelling at Chuck now.” 

“Very true.”

\--  
They win the Finlandia Trophy by almost 20 points which is a huge achievement but Cheryl and Jason weren’t there and they don’t start competing until their Grand Prix event, which is Skate America in two weeks, so they still don’t know how they would measure up to them.

He tries to keep those thoughts to himself but when their way to the airport, Veronica voices the same thoughts he’s having.

“Let’s just be happy about this victory.” 

They sleep the whole way home, trying to rest up for Skate Canada in a little less than two weeks from now.

\--  
They win Skate Canada by 22 points, Betty and Jughead behind them. They celebrate with Kevin and Josie afterwards who had also won their events.

They find out later, when they get back to their hotel that Cheryl and Jason had won theirs by 21 points. They’re in the lead again but not by much.

They’re anxiously waiting to compete against them, but they still have one more Grand Prix even to win before they can qualify to the Grand Prix final and face off against against them.

\--  
It’s less than a month later and they’re back at this years Trophee Eric Bompard. Veronica’s gone to explore Paris as soon as they’re settled at the hotel. He’s meeting Valerie before he goes into the bubble of competition. Valerie had just arrived so he’s waiting around in his room for her to come down. 

He’s looking at his phone waiting for Veronica to text him too, but he knows she won’t because Reggie had taken a few days off to come watch them compete, at least Valerie’s here too.

When Valerie comes over and they’re ordering food, he’s not thinking about how Veronica is showing Reggie all her favourite places to go to in Paris, the places that she had shown him. 

At least she showed him first.

vi.

This is the first time she’s skated in front of Reggie and it’s putting her a little on edge. She’s never worried about who’s watching, she always zones the whole world out except for Archie, but she’s scared that Reggie will distract her.

“Ready?” Archie says, standing beside her, they have both just finished squatting against the outside of the boards, so she knows immediately what he’s asking. She’s kind of wary of what Reggie will think of the hug, but her worries are gone when Archie puts his arms around her and buries his face in the crook of her neck. His breath hitting her, making the hairs on the nape of her neck stick up. She feels her breathing slow down to match Archie’s and that’s when she forgets that Reggie is even in Paris.

They win the gold medal by 12 points, their final score being 176.93, a french team behind them. They’re so happy but she can’t wait to know what Cheryl and Jason had gotten at their event. She’s becoming obsessed and that’s not good for them.

They dance to ‘I want to hold your hand’ for the exhibition, trading it from Hallelujah, which they danced to at Skate Canada.

They find out from Betty and Jughead who come in second to Cheryl and Jason that they got beat by 18 points, Cheryl and Jason’s total score being 179.06.   
And just like that their lead is gone.

They qualify for the Grand Prix final, soon they’ll be going head to head with Cheryl and Jason and that’s all she can think about.

Her and Archie are at their therapy session when she brings it up.

“I know thinking about the the blossom’s score is only natural because they’ve been our competition for so long but I feel like it’s all I care about and all I think about.” Archie is sitting on the couch next to her playing with his hands, nodding along to every word she says.

“Why do you think you’re focused on them and not yourself?” The therapist asks

“Because I’m scared of losing?” She questions, not knowing if there’s a wrong or right answer.

“I think it’s more than that.” She says, Archie speaks up then,

“I think it’s because looking at their scores all season will only make it easier to say ‘we knew we were going to lose,’ I think we’re just preparing ourselves.”

Veronica knew Archie was dealing with this too, because half the time he was the one to tell her their scores. 

“How do we go back to not caring enough to search up results?” She looks to their therapist now, awaiting an answer.

“You look to each other, whenever you want to know their score, you find each other and enter the bubble. The bubble is for just you, no one else is allowed in.” She looks at Archie who is looking at her.

“Just us.” Keywords. Somehow they had dropped their keywords, left them behind and forgotten how helpful they were off the ice.

“Yes.” He smiles back.  
\--  
They fly to Quebec city for the Grand Prix final, the final competition before the New Year. She’s excited to go back home and see her family, her mom and dad are going to be in the stands and then they’ll all fly back to Riverdale together. She promised Reggie she would go see him in Vancouver right after christmas, before practice resumes, she has to remember to put his name down on her calendar. 

They come in second for the short dance and the next day come in second for the free dance. They get silver, behind Cheryl and Jason. She looks to Archie as they’re standing on the podium listening to the American anthem play, they enter the bubble. It’s just them. She’s okay.

She is okay after that, she lets go of the Grand Prix the minute her plane takes off, her parents beside her going on excitedly about how fantastic she was. She wishes she could see herself through their eyes sometimes. Archie is somewhere on this plane too, with his parents and Valerie who is spending christmas with them.

She remembers to visit Reggie.

\--  
There’s a blizzard in Ilderton when she gets back, it’s January first in the east coast is usually gross during this time of year, but the weather does shock her a bit since she had just gotten back from a rainy Vancouver. She had spent six days living with Reggie at his apartment, hadn’t heard much from anyone since she was cooped up with him. She really does like Reggie, sometimes she just has to remind herself, that’s all.

She makes it back to the rink looking like a snowman, her hair is under her jacket hood but it’s somehow still frozen and covered in snow. Her jacket looks like someone had just thrown her in a snowbank and left her there for days.

“Veronica, my office in five.” She can’t believe she’s been here less than 3 seconds and she’s somehow already in trouble.

When she walks into Penelope’s office, Archie is already there, knee jumping up and down, hands in his lap.

“Hey,” she greets him sitting down in a chair next to him.

“Hey, Ronnie.” He gives her a faint smile, nervous about what’s to come.  
“Do you know what’s happening?” He looks at her shaking his head. Just as he’s about to talk, Penelope walks in.

“Okay, I don’t know if you’ve heard, seeing the confusion on your faces, means probably not, but the ISU made a calculation mistake.” Veronica’s eyebrows crease, she turns to Archie who has a similar expression on her face. They’re about to take a title away from them.

“What event? Archie asks, sitting up straighter in his chair.

“The Grand Prix Final.” Oh. They weren’t taking a title away, they just never gave it to them.

“We won the Grand Prix?” She’s trying to keep her voice leveled, doesn’t want to get excited/

“Yes, by 0.5, you would have gotten gold but they made a mistake.” Penelope is looking at them like it’s not big deal.

“And?” Archie adds.

“And what?” 

“Are they going to give us the title?” Penelope sighs, placing both her palms on her desk.

“Well no, they’re going to leave it in the past. It was a mistake, so that’s where it should stay.” She’s not surprised that the ISU would admit to this and not give them what is rightfully theirs. It’s such a them move to pull.

“Why even tell us then?” She can feel Archie getting angry, his ears turning red, she places a hand on his arm to ground him.

“Probably so they don’t look like they’ve been bought.” 

“Have they been bought?” The tone in his voice is accusatory and she can’t believe he just said that to Penelope.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but if you’re accusing me of bribing judges you have another thing coming.” Penelope’s scowl is growing by the second, she has to do something before they leave this office without a coach.

“I think Archie just meant that if they had to do all that why wouldn’t they just give us the title?” As soon as she speaks, Archie relaxes, leaning back a little more in his chair, still glaring at Penelope.

“You would have to ask them, now if you excuse me, I have to go coach.” She says leaving them in her office in silence.

“I don’t care.” She says to Archie, holding his hand now, “I don’t care about the title, I let go of the Grand Prix and i can let go of this, only if you let go too.” He’s playing with her hand, looking straight at, jaw clenching and unclenching.

“We fight harder than ever so our score is so big calculation mistakes can’t ever happen again.” She beams at him, thankful for not having to fret over this.

“I missed your face, kiddo.” 

“I missed yours too.” she gets up, pulling him up with her.

“You were in Vancouver the whole time I was free.” He’s following her out of the office, walking towards the change rooms.

“You were with Valerie the whole time I was free.” There’s something playful in his eyes, it makes her feel giddy inside, she smiles before getting on her tiptoes and kissing his cheek.

“I’ll see you on the ice in just a few.” 

“I’ll be waiting.”

When she enters the change room, Cheryl’s in there getting something from her bag, she smiles politely and makes her way over to her locker.

“Veronica?” She’s rather surprised that Cheryl’s talking to her out of her own will, with no one in the room.

“Yeah?” She’s ready for her to rub it in her face that even though they won the title is still hers, but she does the opposite.

“I’m sorry about the Grand Prix, I know I have no control over that stuff but I just wanted to apologize.” Cheryl does look truly apologetic, Veronica gives her a small smile,

“Thanks Cheryl.” Cheryl just smiles back before turning back to what she was doing.

Veronica goes back to putting her stuff away when Cheryl is back by her side, looking at her.

“Yes?” 

“You have to stop.”

“What?” She has no idea what Cheryl is on about.

“You’re hurting him?” Cheryl’s voice is sullen, calm.

“Archie?” She can’t think of anyone else Cheryl would care about and Veronica never talks to Jason, so Archie was the only option.

“Can you stop acting dumb for a second? You know how he feels about you.” Now Veronica is really confused and kind of offended. What feelings?

“He doesn’t have feelings for me, we’re just friends.” Cheryl looks like she’s about to hit her upside the head.

“Everyone’s right, you really are idiots. Do you know why we broke up?” She shakes her head, Cheryl rolls her eyes.

“Why?”

“Because I always caught him looking at you, you would call and he would leave me to rescue you. I know he didn’t mean to harm me but I just grew tired of it.” Veronica can’t believe what she’s hearing. They broke up because of her? Didn’t Cheryl know that Archie and her were just best friends?

“That’s just how he is, we’re just best friends, he would do that for anyone.” Cheryl stands up, she looks like she wants to stomp her feet and wave her arms around.

“You’re so delusional if you think anyone looks at their best friend the way he looks at you.” 

“You’re just saying what the press and fans have been saying for years. It’s just his face! We’ve known each other forever, our relationship is complicated”

“You just said you were best friends and now you’re saying you’re relationship is complicated?” Veronica is the one that throws her hands up in the air, getting tired of this conversation.

“Yes!”

“You’re so frustrating! Look, all I’m saying is, stop rubbing your uncomplicated relationship with Reggie in his face.” What does she even mean by that? She’s not rubbing her relationship in his face, no one is rubbing anyones relationships in anyone's faces.   
.   
“I’m not, that’s not what I’m doing, I like Reggie.”

“You’re literally in a retaliatory relationship, Veronica!”

“No I am not! I like Reggie, ever since I met him I liked him and I decided to be with him!” They’re outwardly yelling now and someone could walk in at any moment but she’s so heated she doesn’t care.

“Archie gets in a relationship, you get in a relationship, this isn’t the first time, remember Chuck?” Her voice is dripping with sarcasm, her hands on her hips.

“Chuck wasn’t a retaliatory relationship either, I really liked him.”

“You broke up like two days after Archie and I did.” Veronica gasps.

“That isn’t true at all, we broke up during the summer, months after you and Archie.”

“You’re so stubborn and one day you’re going to realize how blind you’re being and you’re going to regret wasting so much time.” Cheryl spins around, grabbing her bag and slamming her locker door shut, pushing her way out of the locker room.

She wasn’t in a retaliatory relationship.

iv.

They win gold in Canadian championships and gold at Four Continents. The latter being their second Four Continents title since 2008 and their first victory against Cheryl and Jason since 2010 Worlds. They win 2012 Worlds finishing first ahead in both dances. 

It feels really good to end the 2011-2012 season on a high note.

They go back to train a bit before May when they start touring with Stars on Ice. They’re trying to think up new music for their programs in the 2012-2013 season when Penelope walks in, calling for everyone's attention.

“Clifford and I have officially split. You have to decide if you’re going to stay and practice here or go with him to Michigan. You have three days.” She walks away, leaving everyone whispering and creating reasons why they split, Jason and Cheryl are absent today and he thinks this why.

They stay in Ilderton, this has become home and even though they would be practicing in the states if they left with Clifford, he can’t think of a reason to leave.

Penelope has been so good to them in the past and he has faith in her. 

\--

“We’re going to Sochi right?” Veronica asks him as they’re sit in his car, air conditioning blasting, she’s surfing through some songs, trying to find music for their program before the announcement deadline. 

“It’s less than two years away so it would be weird if I said no.” The smile and her face grows so wide his heart starts beating faster.

“Sochi 2014!!” She yells out the window, scaring some poor old dude who’s walking peacefully. She covers her mouth and giggles, him joining her in her excitement.  
“Remember after Vancouver when the USA committee wanted us?”

“Yeah and i remember you clearly saying ‘you didn’t want us at our worst, so you don’t get us at our worst!’’ She goes into another fit of laughter. He remembers when they got the call from Skate America, the wanted them after they had won gold to have two championship Ice Dance teams. He and Veronica didn’t even think about it before saying no. They couldn’t imagine skating for another country, not when they felt so accepted and loved from the very beginning exactly where they were.

“I should of said that to their faces.” He shakes his head, eyes wide, small laughs leaving his mouth.

“No, you really shouldn’t have.”

\--

They find what they’re going to dance to in the upcoming season. Their short dance is ‘The Waltz Goes on’ and the one Veronica is really excited about because she gets to play the enticing vixen instead of the wholesome lovestruck princess is their free dance to Carmen. 

The days before leaving for Stars on Ice, her and Mandy come up with some choreo that is for sure going to kill him. He has never seen Veronica enbody so much passion and sexiness in a dance, he doesn’t know how he’ll survive months of her hands running up and down places her hands shouldn’t even be because they’re best friends. And that one move, the move that will be the death of him, the move that is so riskè to add into the dance, Mandy isn’t sure that Skate Canada will allow it because it’s basically sex on ice. The move is the last part of the dance before they get into their end position. It has Veronica jumping up, legs over his shoulders, as his head is in between her thighs, spinning around, falling into his arms, spinning some more, dancing and having her end up with her legs around his waist, his hips thrusting up into her, her back arching and throwing her head back.

“It’s actual sex on ice.” Mandy says, “I love it.” Yeah, he does too, which is exactly the problem.

\--  
They’re off to tour in about every Canadian city for the summer which means they still get regular training tim and they can’t slack off. They decided to tour because of that reason, because with the Olympics less than two years away they couldn’t afford summers off.

He loses track of the days, he only knows what city he’s in because Veronica makes a point to tell him, she also makes sure he’s eating and getting enough rest before shows. The only thing this tour has accomplished is making him more dependant on her. She’s doing her schooling during this tour, almost completing her first class and starting a new one for when tour is over, she can go to Toronto and actually attend classes before the new season.

All their friends are on this tour, they had the same idea about not resting for the summer. Valerie only signed up for the east coast shows, so he’ll see her later in the month for a few weeks. He’s excited about seeing her, he’s missed her. Specially when Reggie joined them.

He was with them for a week before having to head of to switzerland, since the snow had all melted. He loved summer just a little more now.

He specially hated when Reggie was over and he was trying to sleep because he could hear Veronica’s breathy sighs of pleasure coming through the wall and he wanted to tear his hair out and punch Reggie’s stupid fucking face.

But now that he was gone, he had Veronica all to himself again. 

“I need Veronica.” Josie says barging into the dressing room of the arena they’re in.  
To himself and Josie.

“She’s just getting changed, she’ll be out in a bit.” Josie sits in a bean bag opposite to him, her costume already on, they were all supposed to be ready for the opening number in about 30 minutes.

“Valerie and V are my friends.” She says out of nowhere.

“Okay?”

“All I’m saying is, I’ll kill you if you hurt either one of them.”

“Josie, Ronnie is my best friend, I would rather die than hurt her.”

“I know, that’s the problem.” Before he can say anything, Veronica comes out in the same outfit Josie is in, all the girls wearing the same black, glittery one pant suit for the opening number.

“Hey! You look good.” Veronica says to Josie, setting down the clothes she just got out of.

“Thank you! So do you.” They do this every time, this isn’t the first time they’ve seen each other in these costumes, having performed in them before.

“What’s up?”

“I need your help with my other costume, it ripped and I need your fashion expertise.” Josie stands up off the bean bag, clapping her hands in front of her, begging Veronica.

“Anything for you! Lets go.” Veronica’s already out of the room when Josie turns to him.

“What about Valerie?” He raises his eyebrows, confused.

“You would rather die than hurt V but what about Valerie?” Before he can answer she’s already out the door and after Veronica.

He doesn’t know what Josie is talking about, but he wouldn’t dream of hurting anyone.

\--   
He breaks up with Valerie the day after Stars on Ice ends. Gives her some bullshit excuse about having to focus on just the Olympics. He thinks he realizes now what everyone has been saying to him. Realizes it when Veronica is in Toronto living her life and he’s in Riverdale, helping his aunt down at the rink. It’s like a sudden flash, it just happens, he’s thinking about how much he misses her, how much he misses just spending time with her in the silence. He starts thinking about their journey and how he can’t imagine doing any of this with anyone else but her at his side.

He realizes that he doesn’t remember his life before she made a home in his arms and lived in every crevice of his heart.

\--  
He’s fully prepared to tell her specially when he finds out from Kevin that she ended things with Reggie. That is until she calls him because she heard about Valerie.  
“Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“I don’t know, it didn’t seem important, liste-” she cuts him off.

“Well Josie said you broke up with her because we have to focus on the Olympics and you didn’t even tell me so I could do the same.” 

“Wait what?”

“I broke up with Reggie because you said we have to focus on the Olympics and I totally agree. That has to be our sole purpose right now.” He deflates, the courage he had built up to tell her, fading away.

“Okay.”

He doesn’t tell her.

\--

They’re practicing Carmen a a day before they have to compete at the Finlandia Trophy when on a lift he strains his neck, he knows it’s from a wrong movement but he blames it on the sexual tension he feels during this dance. He regrets agreeing to it. Not really though.

They withdraw from the Trophy when his neck doesn’t feel any better.

They win Skate Canada and the Rostelecom Cup, not competing against Cheryl and Jason until the Grand Prix final again.

They fall into the silver medal position at the Grand Prix Final. They’re fine with it though, know that they weren’t at their best. They both go home for christmas, Veronica spending every day with him at the rink, training little ones and themselves.

Every time he looks at her, his heart reminds him of how he feels. He needs to get back to a place where he can put those feelings back in their little box and hide them forever.

He’s talking to his dad on christmas morning when he asks him how Veronica is doing.

“She’s great, really good.” He knows he probably looks like a lovesick fool when he notices his dad grinning at him.

“You really love her don’t you?” He thinks about denying it, but he’s so tired of hiding it from everybody that he thinks his dad should at least know.

“I don’t think she realizes that she keeps me alive.” He shrugs his shoulders, eating a spoonful of scrambled eggs.

“Tell her then.” He shakes his head, swallowing the eggs.

“I can’t.” his dad gives him a pity look but drops the subject.

“You’re 25, shouldn’t you have a place of your own by now?” 

“I’ve had a place of my own since I turned 18 dad.”

“I mean in Riverdale, for the summers, or when you retire.” 

“Maybe. We haven’t talked about retiring after Sochi though.” He stands up to take his plate to the sink and wash it.

“I didn’t say when.”

He doesn’t want to think about retiring because retirement means he’s coaching at the rink for the rest of his life while Veronica is out there being a badass lawyer and everything else she wants to be.

\--  
They modify their short dance at debut that version at 2013 Canadians. They win their fifth national title with a total score of 187.19. They place first in the short dance at Four continents but during their free dance, Veronica felt cramping in her leg going into the lift.

“I can’t, I can’t, don’t lift me, my leg is cramping.” He can hear the urgency in her voice but the smile doesn’t drop from her face.

“Okay, I got you.” They skate around for a little bit, their music still playing.

“If you can’t you can’t and that’s okay.” He’s holding her hand as they skate, Penelope looking at them from the boards.

“Go tell them, I need a minute.” He does as he’s told and tells the referee about what’s going on.

He skates over to the other side of the rink where Veronica is drinking water and talking to Penelope. The camera man is so close to them and he’s more than a little pissed off at the moment about how she’s hurt and people can’t respect them.

“Mike, get this guy out of here.” He says motioning multiple times at the camera man.

“It’s just a cramp, it’s not my syndrome.” She reassures him, he’s rubbing her back, listening carefully to what she’s saying.

“Okay, I think I can continue.” 

“Are you sure?” She nods hurriedly and he skates off to let the referee know.

“Yeah, we’re going to go, can we pick up at two minutes and I’ll start from there?” They give him the all good and he skates back to Veronica who is waiting at centre ice.

Their music starts and they skate around to it for a bit before going into the lift that Veronica had stopped before. He talks to her throughout the rest of the routine making sure she’s okay. They finish the dance without a fault but he can see how disappointed she is in herself.

Sitting in the Kiss and Cry, she starts to take her skates off, not looking at the camera in front of them. They get their score, a new season's best but it isn’t enough to push them into first place where Cheryl and Jason are. It’s okay though, as long as she is.

“Good job, Ronnie.” He says, she’s still fiddling with her skates. He takes one hand and runs it quickly down her leg. She smiles at him finally looking up.

\--  
They finish the season with a second place finish at Worlds. The decide to tour again before taking a brief break in the summer, coming back in the 2013-2014 season feeling refreshed, present, and ready for the Olympics in a few months.

“A Louis Armstrong medley?” Veronica is sitting on the floor, legs sprawled out in front of her, a billion papers spread around her.

“For our short program, yeah.” She’s flipping through pages upon pages of lyrics, highlighting the songs she would like to use. He crouches down, picking up some of the lyrics.

“Dream A Little Dream?” 

“It fits the theme and Penelope signed off on it.” 

“Do we trust her though?” Penelope had been extra distant with them, only giving them advice when they asked. She was never like that, she always gave them advice even if they didn’t want it but now she was putting more time into Cheryl and Jason, always away at their competitions while they stayed and practiced on their own.

“It’s too late not to.” He sits next to her, taking a pile of lyrics from her and one of her highlighters.

“Fine but I get to choose the other song for this medley.”

“Go for it.”

They end up going with ‘Dream A Little Dream,’ ‘Muskrat Ramble,’ and ‘Cheek to Cheek.’

Their free dance is a waltz, they’re hoping the judges will appreciate how they’re being more conservative since they were so critical of ‘Carmen.’

\--  
They start their season at the 2013 Finlandia Trophy and they win the gold medal.  
They win Skate Canada International and the Trophee Eric Bompard. They finish their Grand Prix Final with a world record score but that’s beaten when Cheryl and Jason skate after them minutes later.

His heart stops one day when they’re getting ready to skate at Canadian Championships.

“I know we haven’t talked about it but I think we should retire after Sochi.” He’s quiet for a moment, taking her words in.

“You can’t just drop that on me before we’re set to compete.” She sighs, pausing what she’s doing.

“I know, it’s just I’m so tired of all the stress this brings on, I just want to skate without all the stress.” He feels that way too, has been for a while it just scares him that she could leave his life as easily as she entered it.

“I want that too.”

“Yeah?” She’s smiling and he’s never hated her smile so much before, but the thought that this smile is cause by wanting to get away from him hurts.

“Yeah.”

“We could tour for so many more years, and we would have so much creative freedom! It’ll be so fun.” He starts smiling too when she includes him in her future, their future. She’s not getting rid of him, she’s getting rid of the judges and the lights and Penelope.

“I would love that.” 

They win Nationals and when they let it slip in an interview that they might be retiring after Sochi, they don’t mind because retiring doesn’t mean being without each other.

He gets about a million calls from family and friends, leaving messages asking why he didn’t tell them about their retirement plans.

\--  
They’re on a plane to Russia trying to settle into sleep but the nerves and excitement over the games finally being here is getting to them.

There’s a team even now too, which makes it so much more exciting because they have a chance to win gold with Josie, Kevin, Midge and Fangs. There’s an option that each category could have a different skater dancing in the short program and free dance, but they’re the only ones willing to skate before the individual competition. Everyone else is scared to break something before they get to compete. Even Betty and Jughead said they wouldn’t be doing it, he would’ve been glad to skate either one of the dances so Betty and Jug could have the other but they said they just wanted to keep their heads in the game. He and Veronica decided to do it to get a feel of the judges and what they wanted at this level. They also wanted to do it for their team.

The team event takes off with the Ladies. Josie comes in fifth in the short program and gives them six points, after that Midge and Fangs go, finishing in second in the short program giving them nine points. Kevin goes the next day in his short program, finishes second and gets them nine points. He and Veronica get first in the short dance and gather ten points for their team, seeding them in second place behind the Russians and in front of the Americans after all their short programs.

The next day after that, Josie get’s 4th getting them seven points and Kevin goes after, getting second and keeping them in second place for the third day. In the fourth and final day, Midge and Fangs get second place and when he and Veronica skate and get first, they guarantee a medal.

When the Russian’s go and get second place, their points add up to push them into first.

Their team wins an Olympic silver medal and they couldn’t be happier.

After the team even is done, they have five days to prepare for their ice dance individual event. Midge and Fangs only have one day. 

“Good luck guys! We’ll be cheering for you.” They say to Midge and Fangs as they load up onto the bus that is taking them to a hotel where they can sleep in more comfortable beds and train at a private rink. They’ll be back for training a day before the event.

vii. 

The whispers are so loud they almost feel like screams.

“Bribes,” “corrupt,” “bought judges,” are a few of the things she hears. Some people are saying that the competition is already decided, that skate usa had a dirty judge, that Cheryl and Jason were for certain going to win. 

She’s heard of these conspiracies her whole life, it’s normal in a judged sport, a subjective sport, but this felt so strong, different somehow. It went back to 4 years ago when Penelope and Clifford ignored them. There’s so much she can do, she can’t make all the judges pure and innocent and if they favour someone else over them, they’ve already lost. Whatever happens, at least she’s with Archie. 

 

They’re back at the Olympic Village before they know it and standing on the ice being introduced as the final group to skate in the short program. She’s not as nervous as she was in Vancouver but she can still feel it creeping up on her.

“Hey, kiddo, it’s just us. You and me, out there, together.”

“I’m ready.” They hug as Cheryl and Jason get off the ice to go get their scores. They’re blocking the announcer out like usual, syncing to each other, they pull away, taking their skate guards off and heading into position.

“Dream a little dream.” Archie says to her. 

“We’ve got this.”

\--  
When they finish dancing, she can tell Archie is happy with what they just did, she is too. She feels elated, Archie does a little dance after they break from their pose before taking her hand to bow.

She sees a fan with a poster that says “We’ll miss you Veronica + Archie,” and she almost cries right then because yeah, she does want to live a stress free life and retire but she’s definitely going to miss the rush from competing.

Penelope engulfs them in a hug when they get to the edge of the ice and Veronica can’t help but think that she wants this hug to end in about two seconds.

They sit in the Kiss and Cry when the conspiracies hit her.

They underscored them. She’s not one to whine about her score, she’ll let it be, and cry about how the other persons score was higher, but she always thinks she got what she deserved. Not this time though, she knows Archie feels it too. They’re in first but they gave them a 76 which is below their seasons best. She can’t believe this is actually happening. They finish in second place going into the free dance.

“This is already decided.” She says to Archie as she curls up next to him in his bed, Jughead sleeping in the bed next to them.

“No matter what happens tomorrow, no matter the score, no matter the medal colour, you have to promise me you won’t let it ruin our last competitive skate.” He whispers so he doesn’t wake Jug, she doesn’t answer vocally, just nods her head and digs into his side a bit more.

She hopes she doesn’t break this promise.

\--  
“Our next skaters, represent Canada, Veronica Lodge and Archie Andrews.”

“Just us, no matter what.”

She just nods, going to give it her all even though she already knows who won.

They’re so tired after they finished, so so tired, they’re chests are heaving, she can hear how loud she’s breathing and she feels like she can barely make it back to the boards. Archie jumps onto the boards just like he did in Vancouver, exhausted as well.

She feels good about their skate, feels good about how smooth they went in and out of the twizzles that had given them so much trouble this season, but she doesn’t feel good about the judging.

They’re sitting in the Kiss and Cry and when they get 114.66, a new world record, for a total of 190.99, she feels like maybe, just maybe, they got this. That what everyone was telling was wrong, that this was the right dance for them, that Penelope did want what was best for them and that the judges were fair.

Now all they have to do is wait.

They watch Cheryl and Jason skate, watch as they sit in the Kiss and Cry and watch as they get 116.63 and win the gold.

Archie’s by her side hugging her and turning her away from Penelope celebrating with her kids. 

Her kids.  
How could she have been so stupid? How could she have believed that Penelope wanted what was best for them when clearly Cheryl and Jason had the better dance? The most time with her? The advantage of Penelope being their mom.

“Two Silver Medals, Ronnie. That’s good.” 

“It isn’t the silver medals, it’s how we got them.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“I’ve known it for four years, but I was too blind and loyal to leave.”

“You promised.” He says to her, they’re still hugging, people must think they’re really happy about their silver medals.

“I’m glad we’re retiring.” Is all she says, as she walks backstage to get water.

\--  
When the medal ceremony comes and goes she’s happy to have her two silver medals, they become one of the most decorated Ice Dancers of all time and she likes that. But she sees the way Penelope looks at them, like she knows something they don’t

Jokes on her because they do know.

She is glad they’re retiring.

 

\--

She’s probably on her fourth beer and fifth shot, the Olympics are over and they aren’t competing at worlds so she’s going to let loose and have fun.

“You promised you wouldn't let this conspiracy ruin the olympics.” Archie says walking into the room she’s in, Josie asleep beside her.

“Oh please, it’s not a conspiracy when it’s pretty much confirmed their scores were inflated. And I’m not letting it ruin my Olympics, I’m having fun, celebrating our two silvers.” She isn’t sure how she isn’t slurring her words yet, she could always drink anyone under the table.

“I can see that.” He offers her his hand and she takes it, she stumbles into him as she stands up, her lips hitting his chin. She can feel the heat in her cheeks rise, he’s watching her, waiting for something.

“Dance with me?” She doesn’t recognize the song that’s playing but she accepts his offer anyway.

They dance slowly, not saying anything but she can feel tension rise.

She lifts her head from his chest and stares up at his lips. She doesn’t look away when he notices, watches as his tongue slightly poke outs and licks them. She’s never wanted to kiss him more than in this moment.

She’s thinking of reasons not to do it when she feels his lips on hers. She doesn’t respond at first, thinking of all the ways this could backfire, she thinks about how they’re retiring and how this is okay now, she can let herself have this.

She kisses him back so deeply and hungry that he stumbles back, chasing her mouth with his. His lips are softer than she imagined, his hands move to her face than down to her neck, resting there before landing on her lower back, bringing her closer to him. If she felt like she was flying while holding his hand, she can’t describe what this feels like. A slow burning fire finally igniting to its full potential. A thousand wishes coming true. Any single amazing thing that could happen to a human being, all bundled up in one kiss.

She’s wanted this for so long and she assumes he has too. She nips at his lip and he lets out a small groan, it edges her on and they continue to feverishly kiss. Her hands are running through his hair, pulling at the red strands of silk when she hears a crash come from outside. 

It brings her back to where they are, to what they have just been through.

They’re at an after party, in front of other dancing people, Josie sleeping on the couch at the Olympics where any media could spot them.

At the Olympics where they just lost because she didn’t listen to her gut 4 years ago.

She abruptly pulls back from Archie’s lips, he follows her but she turns her head, making him realize she wants to stop.

“Ronnie, I-” She turns to him, hot tears pouring down her face. She feels so dumb for crying, for feeling so betrayed by her coach that she had so much trust in.

“Ronnie?” He sounds worried, and she can’t blame him. She’s crying after he kissed her.

“Why didn’t we leave?” she cries. He wraps his arms around her as she breaks down, her sobs muffled by his chest. She feels him pressing kisses to her head. Doesn’t care if anyone sees that, as long as they don’t see her crying.

“Why didn’t we leave?” 

\--  
They don’t talk about the kiss the next day, or when the Olympics are over or when they’re packing up their condos in Ilderton or when they get back to Riverdale.

They do have sex though, in the dressing room of an arena in Calgary and the one in Vancouver too.

And a lot of other cities on the Stars on Ice tour.

They don’t talk about it though, because if they don’t talk about it, it isn’t official and there’s nothing to ruin.

It’s just sex.

At least that's what she tells herself and him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I don’t think she realizes that she keeps me alive.” - Scott Moir
> 
> Carmen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ByL0X4SAA4
> 
> I'm not lying when I say that Carmen is sex on ice, so if you want to watch it and imagine Varchie, go ahead.
> 
> Short Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq-e_Jkf91s 
> 
> Free Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqM6-Fh-o-0


	4. Retirement Is Bittersweet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I miss you so much it hurts.”
> 
> “Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter only has the remainder of 2014 after Sochi and the beginning of 2015.  
> Sorry for taking so long to put it up, the last week of the semester shook me so hard. I have finals all this week and next week so it probably won't be up until then.
> 
> Thank you for always being so lovely and for your patience.
> 
> Be warned that there is implied smut and possibly light smut.

Part 4:

i.  
He wakes up next to her almost everyday. Some days they have sex and others days she just wants to cuddle. But they don’t talk about it when the sun comes up because that makes it too serious. Because they’re just friends who have sex and never kiss.

He doesn’t like thinking about how much it hurts when she slips out of his arms and out of his bed, throwing on her clothes so she can dash across the hall into her room before her makeup team arrives at her door. 

He also doesn’t like thinking how much more being with her means to him than it does to her because if he does think about that he’d be really bad company to all his friends. 

Sometimes he thinks about how much he’s going to miss her when the tour is over. She’ll be in Toronto going to school, fielding sponsorship opportunities and being overall brilliant while he’s in Riverdale helping his aunt out at the rink. 

His heart starts to ache whenever he thinks about being away from her. He can’t imagine what it’ll actually feel like when it happens in a few short months. They haven’t decided if they’ll come back and skate for the next stars on ice tour but he hopes they do so he can have her near him again. 

He turns to look at her, her back is to him, her black hair spread across one shoulder. She looks so small wearing his shirt, so beautiful and fragile and all he wants to do is reach out and touch her. If he does though, he risks waking her up and he doesn’t want her to leave yet. 

He thinks back to last night, the way she touched him, her hands roaming to places that had been off-limits before. Dipping into his pants and touching before he even had the chance to do or say anything. The way she felt underneath him when she yelled out his name, the way it felt to be surrounded by her when he reached the most wonderful of highs. 

He thinks he’s in too deep, but hasn’t he always been?

—

He’s eating breakfast in the green room with Kevin on one side and Jughead on the other when she walks in. Her hair is still loose, his Riverdale sweater over her body and simple black leggings on. She heads straight for Josie, smiling at her friend before grabbing a plate and heading for the food table. He watches her the whole time, not missing the looks Kevin and Jughead give each other. 

He smiles at her when she notices him looking and she walks over.

“Good morning, boys! It’s so lovely out isn’t it? Did everyone sleep alright?” She could win an academy award for the act she puts on every morning, like she’s seeing him for the first time.

“Yeah, I slept great, thanks Ronnie.” He thinks his acting skills fool his friends because it has Kevin and Jughead nodding in agreement.

“I’m so glad to hear that! It’s been tough on you,” she pauses her eyes widening, “you told me.” She covers up, giving them one last smile and walking over to the girls opposite to them. 

“Shut up.” He says to Kevin and Jug. Jug just puts his hands up in surrender, a smirk on his face. 

“We didn’t say anything.” Kevin says, stuffing some toast in his mouth. 

“Jug?” Betty calls to him, grabbing his attention, his mouth full, “what was it that their fans,” she motions to him and Veronica, “call the Carmen lift?”

Veronica is looking from him to jughead curiously.  
Jughead swallows the food he’s chewing on with a big gulp and proceeds to laugh.

“Oh yeah!” He takes a moment to gather himself, tries to speak but starts laughing again. 

“What is it?” He asks Jughead who is still in the process of losing it. 

Archie takes a sip from his coffee, waiting for jughead to finally speak, all eyes in the room are on him. 

“Cunniliftus.” Archie almost chokes, swallowing hard to avoid spitting out his coffee.

“What?!” Veronica shrieks from the other side, her face red.

“This is the best information I have ever gotten.” Kevin pipes up, cheeks flushed from laughing. 

Archie can feel how hot his face is and once the embarrassment subsides he starts laughing along with his friends, looking at how unamused Veronica is by all of it. 

“That’s so bad!” She says, hiding her face in her palms. 

“Oh come on, you have to have known what it looked like when you put it in your program.” Josie adds. 

“Well, yeah but- I don’t know, that word makes it sound so dirty.” Veronica’s nose crinkles when she says the word. He’s smiling at how cute she looks, her innocent persona outside of the hotel rooms they’ve been spending all their free time in amused him. 

“It’s not like you haven’t done it before.” Betty says in a teasing tone. Veronica’s head snaps so fast towards the blonde girl that he thinks her head might come off. 

“What?” Her voice is tense now, matching how he’s feeling. If their friends know about them and Veronica finds out they know, she’ll stop all this. She’ll stop letting him hold her. 

“We compared notes when you were with Reggie?” He can tell how much Betty’s enjoying this, Veronica relaxes in her chair. He’s the one that’s still on edge. He doesn’t want to know about Reggie and Veronica. Doesn’t want to think about what they did together. 

“You compared notes?” Jughead questions, slight surprise in his voice. 

Everyone in the room laughs at him and he can see how relieved Veronica is at having the attention shift to someone else. 

—  
“Did you know they write fan fiction about us?” They’re running through their part in the group number, twisting in each other’s arms.

“I don’t even know what that is.” He says honestly, twirling away from her as she does the same.

“Well our fans create stories about us. Stories where we’re together or have a family, stories where we aren’t skaters,” she falters before continuing, “in some of them we’re in love but we don’t know we are.” She’s back in his arms now, looking up at him through her lashes.

“Oh.” He doesn’t know what she wants him to say. He could say that that’s cool, but he doesn’t know if she’ll agree. He could say that he hates it but what if she takes it the wrong way and thinks he hates the idea of them being in love?

“Yeah, it’s weird but oddly sweet I guess. They’re just invested in our story. It’s a huge compliment to our on ice chemistry.” Does she know who she’s talking to? Because that sounds like the most prepared thing she has ever said to him.

“Is that your media trained answer?” She smiles at him, her hands ghosting both sides of his face as she moves into another movement.

“I would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t you I said it to.” He chuckles, pulling her into him and lifting her slightly. 

“I know you too well.” Her arms go above her head, hands pointed outward.

“You sure do.” There’s a glint in her eye, a cheeky meaning behind what she’s just said. 

“Hey, you go on in 5.” One of the assistants for the show says. Archie clears his throat, parting from Veronica and giving the woman a short nod.

“Thank you.” Veronica says, watching the woman leave. 

“We should go.” He grabs onto her hands, walking out of the room and into the hall that leads to the ice. 

“This is going to be so fun.” She says, skipping down the hall, her hand still firmly in his. 

—

She’s on top of him, kissing down his chest, his hands are in her hair, his eyes watching her every movement. 

He wants to kiss her so bad, wants to pull her up towards him and devour her mouth. It’s against the rules though, so he’ll respect it, he doesn’t want to scare her off.

“Archie.” She moans making his blood boil in the best way possible. 

“Ronnie, please.” He doesn’t know what he’s begging for, he just wants her to stop grinding on his dick and do something. 

“What do you want, baby?” He almost cries at the pet name. 

“You. I want you.” And your heart.

“You have me.” Her voice is sultry as she moves lower down his body, his head drops back on the bed as she dips her hand into his boxers, taking him in her hand. 

He doesn’t have all of her.

—

“‘How Will I Know’ is a telling program.” Valerie says from beside him in her makeup chair. 

It hasn’t been that awkward touring with her, he thought it was going to be tense whenever they were around each other, but he’s surprised at how much he appreciates her friendship.

“And what does it tell you?” They’re both waiting for the makeup artists to get to them. 

“How will I know if you really love me?” She quotes to him, “it’s like you wrote the song for her.” He looks away from her and towards his phone.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Valerie scoffs, “and besides, she picked the song.” He looks at Valerie when he says that, sees her eyes widening, her head shaking slightly. 

“That’s even more telling.” He’s about to ask her how when both their makeup artist walk in, Veronica and Kevin behind them. 

“Let’s get ready for the show ladies and gentlemen!” Lacy, one of the makeup artists says. 

“Can you believe we only have a month left of tour?” Kevin says, patting him on the shoulder as he walks by to find an empty chair. 

One month until his world falls off its axis. 

—  
“Are we going to announce our retirement?” They’re laying in his hotel room, his breathing still heavy from their prior activities.

He turns to look at her, her chest is covered in little droplets of sweat and he wants more than anything to lick them right off her. She’s looking at the ceiling, spent.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to finalize it.” Not announcing their retirement gives him hope for the future, he hopes it means that they’ll maybe go back to competition and he’ll get to hold her hand for at least one more season. 

“We don’t have to, I guess.” She turns to look at him, propping her head up with her arm.

“It’s like, I know we’re retired, we’re done competing but if we announce it, it’ll destroy me.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“It’s been 17 years of just us and I’m scared that by announcing our retirement, it’ll be the end of more than just our careers.” She gets closer to him, cuddling into his side, her hand looking for his. They meet each other halfway and she intertwines their fingers. 

“We’ll always be best friends. No matter what we’re doing.” She just smiles up at him and he thinks he’s such a stupid idiot.

He should’ve said that it could never be the end of them because they’re different from all the other skaters. That it’s complicated between them because they aren’t just best friends, that he would follow her to the ends of the earth. That she could never lose him. 

But instead he just smiles back and watches as she starts dressing back up again, leaving his room. 

The quiet eating him alive.

 

ii.

She knows it’s not good for her to literally fuck with her feelings. Sleeping with Archie had been happening ever since the tour started. It had happened so out of nowhere that if she thought about it it would give her whiplash.

It had started because every time she looked at him she was reminded of Sochi and every time she thought of Sochi, she thought of the intensity she felt after she realized it had been a betrayal. 

It had worked, when Archie was inside her, his face buried in the crook of her neck, or when she was on top of him, head back and looking at the ceiling, she wasn’t reminded of Sochi. It just felt good. He was a good distraction. 

Until now, because when she looks at him, she doesn’t think of Sochi anymore, she thinks of the little boy that took her hand and made her feel like she was on top of the world. The teenager who drove her to and from school and across the border to see her mom when she was sad. The man who tells her things like ‘it’s only us,, no matter what,’ and tells the press that he would never dream of skating with anyone but her. The man who looks at her like she hung the moon. 

And she realizes it now, realizes that Archie might actually feel the same way, but she won’t go for it, she’s too scared of losing him forever if they try and it doesn’t work. She needs him in her life, she can’t imagine her life without Archie in it. And if they go out and break up, it’ll be ruined. And she won’t know how to live with herself.

She wishes she knew exactly what she felt. But the years of friendship to best friends to undefined tension all blur together and it’s just confusing. 

—  
“Have you talked to Cheryl or Jason since the olys?” Kevin asks one day after she’s done the ladies group number and before he goes on to do the guys number. 

“I need to be the bigger person for that and I’m not. I’m just a person who can’t get over one stupid loss.” She can tell Kevin regrets the question as soon as she answers. 

“Veronica, you’re one of the nicest most humble people I have ever met. It wasn’t just the loss of the medal. It was the loss of trust you had for someone you worked with for half your life.” Archie comes out from behind the curtains then and pulls Kevin with him onto the ice. 

“We’ll talk!” Kevin yells.

She usually watches them perform but she isn’t feeling it tonight. Her and Archie still have to perform their solo so she goes to the green room to relax until they had to do that. 

When she walks into the green room, Toni is sitting on the couch, texting on her phone. Great, she’s trying to run away from her memories of Sochi and here sits her biggest connection to the past. 

“Hey, V!” Toni has no idea about how Veronica feels towards her being here or her bitter feelings towards Sochi. She loves Toni but she’s just a reminder of Cheryl. She wishes she could forget Sochi. 

“What are you up to?” She sits at the table, closest to the door and furthest from Toni. Making it look like she’s in here for a snack.

“Cheryl’s just letting me know when she gets in.” Toni is so happy, so unconcerned and Veronica feels like such a bad friend.

“She’s coming here?” She tries to keep her voice calm, tries not to have an anxiety attack at the thought of Cheryl being in the same room as her. 

“Yes! She’s visiting for a week. I’m so excited!” Veronica smiles, not wanting to let Toni in on her inner turmoil. She gets up, grabbing an apple and walking towards the door.

“I’ll see you, I have to warm up.” 

“Break a leg!” She smiles at Toni once more before booting out of the room.

Screw the green room. 

—  
She’s waiting for Archie to finish washing up before they head down to dinner when her phone chimes. 

‘Reggie’

She hadn’t expected to see his name pop up on her phone anytime soon, if ever. When she broke up with him, he was so understanding of why she chose to do it. Probably because he also needed to focus on training and not going to visit her every weekend.

She opens up her messages and stares at the texts he sent her.

‘Are you in Winnipeg?’

‘I just checked the Stars on ice website and you are.’

‘Sorry If that’s creepy.’

‘Do you want to hang out before you move to another city?’

‘I miss you.’

‘Sorry for spamming you.’

The first messages amuse her, when she gets to the second last one though, she can feel her stomach sink and her heart flutter. 

Reggie was good to her. She missed him sometimes too. But there was Archie and even if they aren’t together together she can’t do that to him. 

She drops her phone like it just burned her, as soon as Archie exist the bathroom.

“Everything okay?” He asks, eyeing her phone.

“Yeah, it’s just Kevin, he says they’re all waiting for us.” She doesn’t know why she lies to him about who it is but she hopes Kevin and the others are actually all waiting.

She watches as he slips his shirt on, watching as his smooth skin disappears underneath it.

“Oh shit, come on, we better hurry.” He quickly puts on his shoes and hurry’s to the door. 

She reluctantly gets off the bed and follows him out the door. 

—  
Valerie hasn’t stopped flirting with Archie the whole time they’ve been eating and she’s about to regurgitate everything back onto her plate. 

 

The mantra that keeps playing in her head tells her that they aren’t together, so who cares if he’s into his ex-girlfriend. 

She’s getting peeved and if anyone at the table notices, they don’t say anything. 

It doesn’t help that Kevin is the only one separating her and Cheryl. 

She zones back into the conversation when Archie says something

“Huh?” He smirks at her and she smiles back innocently 

“I said, Valerie wants to show me something, I’ll be back.” She wants to tell him not to go, she knows she can’t though. He isn’t hers.

“Okay.” She watches as they leave the hotel restaurant. Imagines them making out in the elevator and in Valerie’s room or even Archie’s room. She’s really about to throw up.

30 minutes pass and they don’t come back and she’s trying really hard to stay calm but the thought of Archie with Valerie makes her skin irk.

She distracts herself with her friends but when she notices that an hour has passed, she’s had it.

She pulls out her phone and looks for Reggie’s unanswered texts.

‘Where?’

Not even a minute later he replies, sending her the address of where he’s staying.  
She excuses herself from the table, going up to her room to grab her purse before heading off to find him.

She thinks about telling someone where she’s going so that if Archie asks, they’ll tell him and he’ll feel just as bad as she did, but she doesn’t and she’s thankful for it.

Thankful because once she slips out of Reggie’s bed and finds her underwear, she feels the regret seep deep into her bones.

She hopes Archie thinks she went to bed early and won’t ask her any questions on her whereabouts. 

\--  
“I came looking for you last night but you didn’t answer your door, where were you?” It’s Betty, her smile too bright for such an early morning.

“I was asleep.” Betty gives her a knowing look, drinking a disgustingly sweet coffee. She swears Betty puts a whole 5 grams of sugar in her coffee.

“I know you sleep like the dead but come on.” She sees Archie coming towards her so she just shakes her head and Betty, asking her to drop the conversation.

“Where were you?” Is the first thing that pops out of his mouth, he doesn’t sound mad, just curious. She so wishes she was back in her hotel room, sleeping instead of trying to come up with an excuse in the middle of an airport.

 

“You didn’t come back so I went to sleep.” Betty’s beside her so she can’t change her excuse up. Archie can see right through her though, tilting his head and raising his eyebrows. Did you really just lie to me? She can practically hear him asking it.

Betty can see their silent conversation and chooses then to leave them to it.

“I did come back and you were gone.” She shrugs her shoulders, trying to give off the vibe that she doesn’t care where he’s been.

“Okay sorry.” She quips 

“You want to tell me where you were?” He looks so tired and she rather see that than have him hate her.

“Why does it matter? We don’t have to spend all day together.” He slowly nods his head. He’s going to keep asking until she gives, they don’t hide things from each other, well, most things, so she knows she’s going to have to come out and tell him the truth.

“Is it so bad that you can’t tell me? I won’t judge you.” 

“Yeah you will.” She whispers, he ducks his head, looking for her eyes. 

“Ronnie? What did you do?” She notices the shift in his tone, he’s worried, scared.

“Reggie texted me and we hung out.” She sees how his shoulders tense and how his jaw clenches.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” She wants this to be over with.

“That’s it?” 

“Yeah.” He’s digging into her with his eyes, she can’t hide from him, she wishes she could.

“You slept with him.” He says it so swiftly and softly, the tone that he would use on the ice to communicate without anyone’s knowledge except that they aren’t on the ice so she almost misses it.

“Yeah.” What else can she say? 

“Okay.” He turns to walk away, head hanging lower than when he had walked up to her.

“Are we? Okay?” He turns around, he looks her straight in the eyes and smiles. It chills her.

“Of course, we’re just friends after all.” She nods quickly, turning around and going to sit next to Josie, holding back the tears fighting their way out.

She was so stupid to believe that he liked her as more than a fuck buddy. He probably didn’t care because he did the same with Valerie.

That’s what she tells herself, it’s easier to think that than admit that she might have hurt him. 

—

The plane ride is the most awkward thing she has had to deal with in a while. He sits beside her but talks to Valerie the whole time and pretends she isn’t even there.

That doesn’t stop him from knocking on her door at midnight in a new hotel room and fucking her hard and fast into the early hours of the morning.

iii.

Whenever Reggie’s stupid name appears on Veronica’s phone, he feels the jealousy creep slowly into every crevice of his being and then explode all at once.

When Veronica admitted to him that she had slept with Reggie, his heart had constricted and he swore it had been strained if any blood. 

That night, when he had knocked on her door and he was buried inside her, he tattooed the word ‘mine’ in the space where her shoulder meets her neck. Over and over he repeated the word like a prayer. She was his for that night and every other night she lets him have her.

—

Having Cheryl around had been a surprise blessing, he had Veronica on edge at every hour of the day and to unwind Veronica chose him.

He knows he should probably talk to her about why Cheryl makes her so damn tense, but he’s enjoying his current situation. And he doesn’t want to talk about Sochi. He would like to keep those old wounds closed. 

Veronica has other ideas though. One night when they are all out celebrating a double show day, Veronica comes up to him, too many drinks in her, wobbly on her feet, leaning on him to keep her up.

“Can you believe Cheryl let herself be bought?” She’s slurring so much he can barely pick up what she’s saying, but he puts the words together, his brow creasing, she isn’t looking at him though, just looking out over to where Cheryl is draped over Toni.

“What?” Maybe they shouldn’t have this conversation in Cheryl’s hotel room. Is this Cheryl’s hotel room or Josie’s?

“Well she didn’t get bought but her mom did you know?” He shakes his head ‘no’ not that it matters since she continues on.

“When Penelope broke her leg, and the USFA payed for her surgery? That’s them indirectly buying her allegiance.” He’s so confused, he hasn’t ever heard of this conspiracy. He thinks Veronica has finally gone off the deep end and started making things up.

“I remember them paying for it but I don’t think so, Ronnie.” She scoffs, shaking her head and finally tearing her gaze off of Cheryl only to glare at him.

“Of course you don’t.” He’s taken back by the harshness in her voice.

“Excuse me?” He slightly pulls away from her to get a better look at her face.

“You didn’t see it then and you won’t see it now.” The harshness is still in her voice but it has an added component of shakiness and he doesn’t know if it’s because she’s trying to keep herself from yelling at him or crying.

“What do you mean?” He can see now, with the way she throws her arms so roughly by her side and looks around her to see if anyone is listening, that she’s trying to keep from yelling.

“You wanted to stay! You-I told you how something had changed and you said everything would be okay, that we could trust them, when I knew! I knew we couldn’t because Clifford was always, always Jason and Cheryl’s coach, and Penelope was ours and then suddenly that all changed! She abandoned us and I didn’t know why, not until today when Kevin and Josie showed me a news article that came out about the corruption of the ISU and how they bought her!” She’s breathing so heavy, shaking with anger, having whispered half of her monologue until she finally couldn’t hold it in and exploded in his face. He wants to reach out and touch her but he knows that if he does she might fall apart right in front of all their friends, who are looking over at them, attentions fully captured.

She lets out what seems to be a half sob half laugh and sighs. She looks over at their friends, gives them her press conference smile that she has perfected over the years and whispers to him before storming out of the room.

“You said it would be okay.” He watches her leave and then turns to his friends, looks directly at Cheryl who has her eyes downcast.

“Is it true?” He’s walking towards her and he can see how Toni tenses.

“I didn’t know.” That’s all the confirmation he needs before he’s out of the room and chasing after Veronica.

__

He finds her in her room, laying under the covers, scrolling aimlessly through her phone. 

“I believe you.” She nods continuing on her phone, he sits next to her on top of the covers, placing his hand on what he assumes to be her knee.

“Okay.” He sighs, looking up at the popcorned ceiling.

“I know it sucked to lose, but we have two silver medals and amazing memories from Sochi. We have to think about Canada house and all our friends and Olympic silver, Olympic silver, Ronnie, some people can only dream of that. We need to focus on that before focussing on a loss.” She puts her phone down, sinking further into the bed, his hand going down with her knee when she lays flat.

“You think it’s about not getting gold?” she shakes her head, “it’s not about that, Sochi was so fun, and we do have so many wonderful memories no matter the colour of the medal. It’s about spending 10 years trusting a person and having them stab you in the back. Penelope was there the minute we got to Ilderton, she took us under her wings and became one of the most important people in our lives. I had my full trust in her and she just took it and crushed it. That’s what hurts, that’s what I can’t separate from Sochi, Ilderton, Cheryl and Jason.”

“I think I knew that you were right in your suspicions, I heard the rumours and I just focused on the part where the judges fucked us over. I didn’t want it to be Penelope.” He lays down beside her faces her, she’s still looking up, he sees wetness around the corner of her eye and his heart hurts for her.

“I get that.” She says it so quietly like she can barely speak or she’ll start crying harder.

“I’m sorry we didn’t talk about this before.” She turns to face him, face millimeters away from his, he feels her hot breath on his face.

“Me too.” She cuddles into him and sighs, “Can we sleep?” He just nods his head against her, nodding off into a blissful sleep.

__

There’s two shows left until the tours over and he’s dreading it every second of every day. It’s not only that he knows sleeping together will end the minute he’s back in Riverdale and she’s in Toronto, even if they see each other once a year it’ll be over a cup of coffee, probably awkwardly trying to maintain communication even though she’s moved on from skating and from him. 

He’s scared of everything changing, terrified their relationship not working if there isn’t ice underneath them. 

He tries not to think how in a perfect world they would try for 2018, after she would get her degree and she would go back to Riverdale and they would finally get together and settle down. 

Or, they would win gold in 2018, she would get her degree and he would be right alongside her in Toronto. He would figure out what to do as long as he had her. 

He tries not to think about that because those are the thoughts of a man in love. And he’s not in love with her. He isn’t. Or he convinces himself everyday like some kind of ritual. 

He isn’t in love with her.

But god, does he love her. 

__

They skate to stay by Rihanna for their second last show in Edmonton and if Valerie thought that Sam Smith’s cover of How Will I know fit his feelings for her, Stay fits even more. He wants her to stay with him in Riverdale or wants her to ask him to stay with her while she goes to school. He’ll work while she does, he can coach or get a broadcasting job with CBC, they’ve offered to let him commentate on competitions but he isn’t sure he wants to do that yet, everything is too fresh. He would do it if it meant staying with Ronnie though.

But on the other hand he’s scared she doesn’t want him there, doesn’t want him like that. And if he tells her how he wants more and he finds out in that moment that she’s only ever thought of him as a skating partner, he might die.

He’s holding her closer the last few performances, trying to memorize every inch of her, trying to embed every little detail and expression from her face into his brain, on and off the ice. It isn’t that hard when she’s already embedded herself in his heart for seventeen whole years.

__

“Are you really about to let her go after the show is done?” Cheryl comes up behind him, a starbucks cup in one hand and her cellphone in the other, she’s wearing Toni’s team canada jacket from the Olympics and he smiles at how genuinely happy they are together.

“We’re just friends.” Cheryl sets her cup down and places her hand on her hip.

“So I keep hearing.” He’s wiping furiously at his skate, trying to give of that he’s busy.

“I’m so happy with Toni now, and if I hadn’t taken that leap and told her how I felt, even though I had no idea if she even liked me back, I wouldn’t have her in my life and that is something I could not live with.” She picks up her cup and walks into a room, leaving him alone with his thoughts and his skates.

__

“Well we can do Art on ice in Switzerland in February and Stars on ice Japan in April and still have time for the Canadian tour.” Veronica is sitting on the kitchen counter of the green room chewing on a celery stick and surfing through her phone trying to coordinate the dates of the shows they could do next.

“That’s a lot of shows, what about school?” she plops the remaining piece of celery into her mouth before answering him.

“We’ve done way more in competitions and as for school, I’m taking summer classes and I’ll have the rest of 2014 to gather some credits.” He isn’t about to turn down seeing her sooner than planned so he nods his head in agreement.

“Sounds like a plan.” She leaps off the counter and squeezes his bicep and walks past him.

“Perfect! We shouldn’t announce anything until the dates are closer in case something changes.” She grabs more celery from the vegetable tray behind him, shoving it in the dressing and pulling it out completely covered in it. He scrunches his nose in disgust. 

“I’m splurging.” She grins, placing the celery stick in her mouth.

“You’re gross.” She shakes her head, her eyes playful.

“And you’re weird! Who doesn’t like dressing?” She puts her arms around him and pulls him towards her.

“A lot of people actually.” He’s looking at her lips but instead of breaking the rules and having her mad at him, he kisses her forehead.

“I should go get ready for the show before someone yells at me.” He chuckles as she pulls away.

“By someone you mean Kevin?” She’s gathering all her belongings to take them with her to the change room.

“If he retires, he should really be a stage manager.” She stops at the door before leaving the kitchen, “Our last show!” He nods, a small smile on his face, as soon as she turns away it drops.

The last show.

iv.

She’s out of breath as the closing number comes to an end, she’s trying to locate Archie in between all her friends so they can get into their end position. She spins around Jughead and Betty who have just found each other and flies past Kevin who’s shimmying into his end spot. It’s hard when the spotlight isn’t anywhere near her, not because she wants to be the center of attention but because she finds it really hard to find her partner in the darkness, specially when he’s wearing the same thing the other guys are. Finally, she spots Archie, still doing the choreo in the spot where they’re supposed to be, waiting for her to reach him. Once she does, he grabs her arm and she pulls all her upper body strength to leap into his arms as he holds her up by the legs, she stretches her arms out at both her sides as the music comes to an end and everyone on the ice poses until the lights go out.

The applause is amazing and as Archie sets her back down on the ice, she realizes how much she’s going to miss the thrill of performing. 

They do their final bows and one lap around the ice before finally leaving and going back to the green room. Since it’s the last day of tour, they have a lot of press come out, which means they’ll have to do some interviews before they’re allowed to head to the airport and go home. She has a flight booked for Riverdale before her semester starts, she’s so excited to finally throw herself into school, and yes she’ll miss skating every day and the strict schedule but she’ll have to create her own for school. 

“I’ll see you out there?” Archie asks, one hand on the door of the guys change room. 

“I think they want us there in 15.” He rolls his eyes grinning the whole time before walking into the change room.

She walks into her change room and chokes at the sight in front of her, a huge laugh escaping her. Betty is sitting in the trash can, legs and feet pointed upwards trying to wiggle herself out. Josie is trying to help her by pulling on her arms but she’s laughing so hard that in between pulls, she bursts into laughs and bends down to try and catch her breath. The rest of the girls are equally as amused with what’s happening. Toni jumping up and down, hanging off of Valerie who has tears running down her face. 

“How did this even happen?” She’s out of breath from laughing and Betty is looking at her, eyes wide and cheeks blushing.

“I don’t know! I jumped into the room and Josie screamed because she got scared and suddenly I’m sitting in the trash!” The laughter in the room gets louder before finally coming to an end. Veronica digs for her phone in her bag, wanting to take a picture of Betty for the fans and the boys.

“No!” Betty shouts, covering her face with her hands, Veronica snaps a quick picture before setting her phone down and going to help Josie pull Betty out.

“I can’t believe I missed this.” Many hilarious things happened on the tour but nothing like someone suddenly ending up in the trash.

“Okay! Enough, we have press to do!” Betty says, finally on her feet, smoothing out her dress.

She has nothing against the media, they give them exposure and bring publicity to the sport, but she just wishes that the last few moments of the tour wouldn’t have to be so rushed.

__

They’re on their last interview with some radio station, the rest of the interviews having gone without a hitch.

 

“Good evening, how are you both?” The lady with smooth blonde hair and a grey suite asks them, shaking both their hands before shoving a recording device in their faces.

“Very well thank you!” You says cheerily, Archie looks at her a smirk on his face. He knows she’s putting on an act.  
“How has this tour been compared to past tours?” She lets Archie take the question too distracted by Josie shamelessly flirting with a reporter from the Sun.

“It’s more relaxing, in other tours we usually have our minds set on what we’re going to do for the upcoming competitive season, but for this stars on ice, we were just able to really put ourselves in it and really enjoy it.” The reporter nods, satisfied with the answer Archie gave her.

“Speaking of competitive seasons, have you decided when you’ll announce if you’re retiring?” Veronica realizes that she was satisfied with Archie’s answer because she could perfectly segway into the retirement question.

“We’re taking everything slowly right now, letting the dust from the Olympics settle and we’ll come together at some point to access if we’re coming back or not.” Veronica takes the lead, trying to take the pressure of the question away from Archie only to realize that she mentioned the thing she wasn't supposed to mention. Their publicist is going to kill her.

“Now, I presume you’ve heard of the controversies around the Olympic ice dance committee and your coach, how do you feel about that? If you come back would you go back to her?” She feels likes she’s short-circuiting, Archie seems to notice because he places a hand on her back and starts rubbing small circles.

“We’ve heard everything that’s being said, it’s hard to avoid those kinds of rumours but in a sport that is judged and is subjective, there’s always going to be some kind of controversy over who someone thinks was better. As for going back and skating in Ilderton, we haven’t thought that far ahead.” She nods in agreement, pretending to be thinking over his words. She’s so thankful to have Archie there with her because if she was a single skater and someone had asked her that she would have ran out of the room. 

“But it was pretty much confirmed, it’s not so much a controversy as it is the truth.” The reporter pushes, she’s trying to get her big scoop from them. She isn’t going to let that happen.

“We haven’t really looked into it, we have so many feelings towards Sochi and so many good memories that we rather choose to focus on those than something like that.” She thinks the reporter gets the hint, looking down at her paper for the next question only to stop before she can even look at the writing on her page.

“Have you spoken to Penelope since?” Veronica’s eyes widen at the sudden name drop and Archie’s hand stills on her back.  
“No.” He tries to brush the sharpness of his answer away by laughing a little afterwards but the awkwardness remains. 

“Um-” The blonde woman stumbles, probably sensing the tension, “People are going crazy over your dances, specially over you Archie, they really like your technicality.” She’s trying to play nice and smooth over any harm she caused.

“Oh thanks, yeah we tweaked some programs here and there, added a new one and tried to perfect our technical side.” She loves how he includes her even though the compliment was only towards him. 

He’s such a great technical skater, much better than she is. He’s always been superior to her skating skills.The way he leans on his edges so tilted, yet so in control, it’s beautiful to her. He digs in so deep, always lifting the ice, while she doesn’t tilt far enough, leaving a few points off. She’s not the worst at technicality, far from it, but he is better, he is one of, if not the best ice dancer of their lifetime. He’s more technical and she’s more presentation. She’s smooth with her flow and speed,has more movement in her upper body than he does. Over the years, together they have become the whole package. The acting, the technicality and the presentation. When she was injured, she heard the rumours of girls dying to skate with him. Offering huge sums of money so that they could skate with him. He always said no, always chose her over anyone else. He’s so loyal, always has been. It’s always been her for him and him for her. 

She’s zoned out of what they’re talking about, she’s happy there aren’t cameras in here if not her fans would start a whole new round of Veronica the robot malfunctioning. 

But she isn’t malfunctioning, she’s thinking about how they are one and she doesn’t know how she’ll do without him in the real world, outside of competition and skating, doesn’t know how she’ll go day to day without him by her side.

She zones back in when the woman points a question towards her.

“Sorry?” Veronica gives her a sheepish smile and waits for her to repeat herself.

“How does it feel to have been together 17 years and maybe having today be the last of it?” She hums in response, trying to put an answer together in her head that won’t give away how she’s completely terrified that this may be the last of them all together.

“Well it won’t be the last time we skate together, if we don’t come back when the season starts we are going to tour together for at least two more years. And he’s my best friend so I don’t think we’ll go long without seeing each other.” She looks to Archie who is oddly quiet next to her, just nodding along to every word she said but a distant look on his face.

“Archie what about you? How do you feel?” Archie snaps out of it and clears his throat before continuing. 

“She’s the most important person in my life, always has been so I don’t think this is the end for us.” She freezes when the words leave his mouth, thankful once again that there’s no cameras. Anger starts to seep in from everywhere all at once. Why does he have to say things like that? Why does he have to give their fans hope that they’ll be together someday? Give her hope.

The interviewer smirks, happy with the clickbait she just got. She thanks them and shakes their hands before walking away to the next skater. Their publicist comes out of nowhere, pulling both of them out of the press room and into the green room. The room was empty, they were the first ones who had started the interviews so everyone else still had people to talk to.

Their publicist leaves them in there, saying she would be back with their flight information. As soon as she’s out of the room, Veronica’s anger boils over and she can’t keep her mouth from running.

“You have to stop saying things like that.” She probably shouldn’t say it so aggressively but she is so tired of telling the press that they aren’t dating only for him to undo it with a one liner like ‘there’s nowhere I’d rather be than skating with her.’

“Stop saying what?” He asks so innocently only fueling her anger. Why can’t he see that she’s trying to protect them from prying eyes?

“She’s the most important person in my life, always has been.” she quotes his words to him.

“It’s true!” He says exasperated, she’s growing more frustrated with him by the minute. 

“I don’t care! Do you realize all the rumours you’ve just helped grow because you can’t control your mouth?” she’s pacing around the room now, her arms flailing widley.

“Veronica, are you serious? Who cares what I say?” He’s holding his hands out to stop her from walking all over the room but she avoids him.

“I do!” She spins to face him, stopping a few feet from where he’s standing, “because they think they have a right to what we feel.” 

“And what do we feel?” Apparently, Archie isn’t the only one who has word vomit. She cringes at the irony.

She can’t go down this route with him, can’t risk everything they’ve been through over 17 years. She won’t do it.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” She’s about to walk away when he stops her, his eyes so full of hope that she wishes he would’ve let her go.

“How did you mean it?” She can’t do this with him.

“I meant that if they find out what I feel, it would break them.” It would break you.

“Why?” She sighs, her arms going up, just to come back down and resting at her sides.

“God, Archie! Can’t you just let it go?” He frowns now, the hope in his eyes disappearing. 

“What’s going on?” she can’t hold it in anymore. She’s going to explode and hurt him like she never has before.

“What we’re doing, what we’ve been sneaking around doing for the past few months?” She waits for him to nod before continuing, “it started because I wanted a distraction. Because every time I looked at you it reminded me of how we were betrayed, it made me think of Sochi and thinking of Sochi made me feel sick. It disgusts me. So I used you to distract me from you.” She can almost taste the venom in her voice as it spills out of her for him to finally see.

“That makes no sense.” His voice is empty of any emotion, he edges her to go on.

“It made sense at the time and the distraction worked, I don’t think of Sochi when I look at you. I don’t blame you.” He takes a sharp step away from her then, like she’s a radiating fire and it burns to be near her.

“You blame me?” She can’t look at him, can’t look at the hurt that’s manifested on his face.

“Arch-” he talks over her.

“What the hell, Ronnie? I have never, not once blamed you for anything in our whole career, and you’re telling me you blame me for Sochi? How the hell is that my fault?” He’s so angry and it transfers to her, he’s always had the ability to influence how she feels.

“Because you didn’t want to leave! You told me to trust Penelope!” She snaps, her voice raising and her face heating up.

“We’ve been over this! And you agreed!” He yells back, turning away from her.

“It’s stupid okay? That’s how I was feeling, I don’t feel that anymore, I don’t blame you.” He laughs. A gross dry laugh that has never been directed at her before.

“You used me and now you blame me? Who are you?” She backs down, her anger subsiding, being replaced by regret and fear.

Maybe if she just tells him that it turned into something else, something more, he’ll forgive her. Maybe they’ll be able to move past her feelings for him, but she’s terrified to even mention it. Maybe they’ll move past this instead. Move past her using him.

“Archie, I’m sorry, I’ll make it-” before she can finish, he’s walking towards the door.

“We need a break from each other.” Her stomach sinks but she can’t stop herself from nodding in agreement.

“The tours over, I’ll go home and you’ll go to school and we’ll get together when we have to train for the next tour.” She’s still nodding, looking at him one foot out the door, “I can’t even look at you right now. I didn’t think I could feel like this towards you.” His voice cracks, pausing to clear it he turns away from the door and looks at her, “but I didn’t think you could look at me and feel disgusted.” he snarls the last part, goosebumps erupting all over her arms.

She goes to correct him but he’s already walking away before the words leave her mouth.

This was worse than just telling him that she was in love with him.

 

v.

All he wants to do is break down and cry but he’s on a plane full of people and even if he’s in first class, away from curious eyes and away from her, he can’t bring himself to let go yet, he feels numb, unable to comprehend what she had said to him hours before.

It doesn’t help that he couldn’t talk it out with anyone because they had to leave right away. Kevin had noticed his mood, he made a promise to come visit in Riverdale once he saw his family and Moose. He thanked him before walking over to his gate, Veronica right beside him in case any fans saw them. He can’t even imagine the rumours that would start up if he was walking angrily ahead of her the whole time. 

 

The worst part of this whole thing is that even though he initiated the break or whatever, if she asked he would go with her to Toronto, if she had stopped him or ran after him or even talked to him on their way to their seats. 

He would follow her to the end of the world if she asked. 

She doesn’t, so he retreats into himself, coaches novice teams and goes on living with half a functioning heart. 

__

Coaching is fun, it keeps him occupied, gives him something productive to do instead of sit on his couch all day and look at Veronica’s Instagram to see how she was settling into U of T.  
He’s coaching a group of five to six year olds and they are all so funny and happy all the time that he enjoys coming into work to feel other emotions besides, sadness and pity.

He’s texted Veronica here and there, sent her a few memes that she likes so much and she has sent him some back, sometimes telling him about how she saw a really cute dog that he would probably really like. That’s it though, nothing about their personal lives, nothing about if the break could possibly end sooner. He supposes that he’s the one he set the rules so he’s the one who should go to her or call her and tell her that he can’t keep not knowing about her life and how she’s doing. But instead he sends smiley faces and wishes he was with her.

“Mr. Archie?” A little voice comes from below him. A little girl with ocean blue eyes and brown hair in a small bun is at his feet, one skate on and the other in her hand.

“I need help getting this one on, please.” He smiles, picking her up and placing her on a bench beside him. He sinks to be level with her and takes the small white skate from her.

“You’re here early.” He says, looking around for her mother.

“I told my auntie that but she’s never seen me skate and she was excited.” Just then, a frazzled woman comes from behind the vending machines. 

“Hi! Sorry, I was just trying to get a locker and she ran off.” The woman seems to be about his age, she’s quite short, shorter than Veronica, she has blonde hair and green eyes. She’s quite pretty but that’s not why he keeps looking at her, she looks familiar.

“That’s alright, she just needed help with her skate.” The woman smiles, stretching out a hand towards him.

“I’m Tina Patel.” He recognizes the name from somewhere but he can’t place her.

“I’m Archie Andrews, nice to meet you.” He shakes her hand and continues looking at her.

“Oh I know who you are.” Archie blushes, not sure if it’s from being recognized or from the possibility that they know each other and he doesn’t remember.

“I see the wheels spinning in your head.” She takes the little girls hand and gently pulls her off the bench. “I’m on team Canada too, I curl.” Oh, that’s where he knows her from, she’s a curler, he went to one of her matches when they were competing in Sochi.

“Yeah! That’s where you’re from, I saw you curl.” She smiles at him, her cheeks turning a slight shade of red.

“That’s me! Though today I am a babysitter for this one over here.” She points to Sasha who is still standing there, clinging to her aunts hand.

“Well she’s amazing so it’ll be fun to watch.” He looks at Sasha when he says this, a grin making its way onto her small face.

“She does have one amazing coach.” He feels what she’s doing, but before he can respond the rest of the parents start arriving, the rink filling with tiny humans.

He likes that she was flirting with him, likes the attention but he won’t do anything with it because he isn’t quite over a relationship that never even happened.

__

Kevin is visiting him, it’s his first time in Riverdale and Archie has taken to be his personal tour guide in the small town. He mostly shows him the places he grew up and the rink where he played hockey until he met Veronica. 

After walking around town the whole day, he takes Kevin back to his place that he had bought right after the Olympics. He didn’t want to bother his parents bringing people home all the time. He also likes the privacy, living on his own for so many years already, had him living on edge with his parents around. He wasn’t used to living with people anymore. 

They’re outside on the patio, Kiss by Prince is playing faintly in the background. They had a fire going and Kevin was trying but failing at roasting marshmallows. He’s on his fourth beer, looking up at the starry sky when he starts thinking about Veronica. He doesn’t expect the words to come out of his mouth but they do,

“I love her.” He isn’t sure if Kevin hears him, doesn’t care either.

“I know.” He can feel Kevin’s gaze on him, he doesn’t want to meet it in case the look on his friends face is pity.

“We were together.” He feels his eyes start to sting, tries to wash away the lump in his throat with another sip from his beer.  
“I know.” He wonders how he knows but he doesn’t feel like getting into it.

“We weren’t together together, but we were sort of together.” He hopes Kevin will understand what’s coming out of his mouth, he doesn’t even know if he understands himself. 

“I know.” 

__

He’s in Montreal visiting Jughead, he’s waiting for him at Gadbois, the rink that his dad and Betty’s mom own waiting for him so they can go out to lunch when FP approaches him.

“How’re you doing bud?” FP and Alice have always been there for him and Ronnie, they always called to congratulate them and when they needed advice on their technicality, FP was his first call. 

“I’m doing well, trying to keep busy.”

“Retirement Is boring huh?” Archie smiles

“Oh yeah.” FP slaps him on the back a big smile overtaking his face.

“Did you like the choreo for How will I know?” Alice and FP had so graciously allowed them to skate their choreography for tour and it had been so great to try and fit into their skates.

“It was amazing, hard to try and surpass you both though.” FP slaps him in the back when he sees Jughead making his way over.

“You surpassed us when you won your oly gold medals, don’t sell yourself short.” He lets a grin take over his face, getting that kind of praise from such an iconic skater meant everything.

“Thank you, FP, really.” He starts to walk away when Jug gets closer.

“Well if you decide to go back, Alice and I would be happy to take you under our wings.” He looks at FP surprised and watches as he walks away.

“What was that about?” Jughead asks, stopping in front of him.

“I think your dad just offered to coach me.” Jughead snorts and starts walking out of the rink and towards his car.

“Alright, let's go.” 

They drive down to Chez Ping, a restaurant that’s just 15 minutes away. They both order the salmon and some dumplings to start. They catch up over their food, talking about tour and the upcoming season. Jughead and Betty are still going to compete and when Jughead asks him if him and Veronica have given competing more of a thought he shrugs his shoulders and changes the topic of conversation.

“So how’s Betty?” Jug is trying to swallow a forkful of rice before he answers.

“She’s really good, she’s actually on a train to Ilderton right now, trying to settle everything for when the season starts.” He grimaces a little at the mention of Ilderton, hoping Jug misses it.

“How come you’re still training there?” He picks up his glass of water, trying to wash down the food.

“Well Cheryl and Jason are retired, so Penelope would be crazy to betray us.” Jughead examines him closely for his reaction, Archie just laughs. Jughead joining in.

“True.” They let the silence fall over them as they eat, Jughead breaking it after a few seconds.

“So how’s Veronica?” He wishes he knew, he hasn’t talked or seen her, only a few texts here and there, since their meltdown after the interview in Calgary.

“She’s fine. Busy at school, I guess.” Jughead scrunches his eyebrows together, questioning him.

“You guess?” Archie clears his throat now, wishing they could just drop this.

“Yeah, we haven’t really talked since the end of tour.” Jughead gives him half a smile, trying to ease the tension.

“Do you miss her?” He doesn’t know what comes over him but that question opens something up in him and he wants to spill his feelings to his friend.

“I miss her every minute of every day, but if she doesn’t want me to be in her life, I’m not going to force myself to be in it.” He looks at his half empty plate of food, not hungry anymore, feels Jughead’s eyes on him.

“I don’t want to overstep but,” he pauses looking for any reaction, “weren’t you the one who suggested the break?” He looks up at Jughead, his lips pursed.

“Yeah.” He’s an idiot.

__  
“Arch!” His dad kicks at his legs making him slide from underneath the car.

“Sup?” He’s squinting from how bright it is, sweat dripping excessively from his face.

“You need to get ready for the July Ball or your mom is going to kill us both.” He sets the tools down and picks himself off the cement. 

“Okay, I’ll quickly drive home and get ready, tell her I’ll be there and to not worry.” He’s already walking towards his car when his dad yells at him about the tools.

“I’ll finish fixing your car tomorrow, I promise.” He gets into his car, all filthy with grease and sweat and starts driving towards his house to get ready for the event.

The July Ball was a charity event that the Skating Club always held to donate money to the children’s hospital. Ever since the first Olympics, his mom had started using him as a pawn to get people out and donate. He didn’t mind, he loved helping out the kids anyway he could, and signing a couple hundred pictures was nothing. Sometimes he had Veronica with him but this year she couldn’t make it because the event fell in the middle of the week and she had class. He understood but it bummed him out that he wasn’t going to see her. She had texted him a million and one apologies and he had accepted a million and one times. Ever since then she had started texting him more often, more detailed information like her favourite place on campus and things about new friends. He felt a little better, like he could breathe lighter every time he received a more detailed text.

He had to make a small speech and he doesn’t know if he’ll make it through without stumbling because Veronica’s always been the better public speaker.

He has to watch from the sidelines as she takes over the world, with her sponsorships and jewelry designs and school, has to distance himself because if he doesn’t his heart will break into so many pieces and he won’t know how to put it back together, not without her.

He guesses that this is the start of a new beginning where he has to do even the things he isn’t good at because she isn’t at his side anymore.

 

He doesn’t know how he’ll do that because he woke up one day and Veronica and ice dance, that was his whole life and now he’s alone.

vi.

She loves school. Loves everything about it, loves how it keeps her on a schedule, loves how she feels like she still has a purpose in the world. She loves that she’s working towards something that could help a lot of people. 

She hates how it takes 100% of her time though, hates how she barely talks to her mom and dad and Archie because she’s so tremendously busy that she can barely get a minute without having to be thinking about laws. It’s hard to keep communication with people who aren’t there, she misses Josie and Kevin and Betty so much but she’s maybe talked to them over the phone once since the tour ended two months ago.

She sees Reggie though, Reggie who brings her coffee and makes sure she eats lunch and dinner every day. Reggie who’s in Toronto because his fitness team moved so now he’s training here over the off season.

He’s the only person she really has in the city and with that she finds that she relies on him a lot. He becomes a really good friend to her and on days where she notices that he wants more than that she tells him that she just needs time. She doesn’t know if she’s leading him on or not.

Her new friends are always just as busy as her and sometimes they can all study together but they’re taking third-year classes while she’s taking some first and second year classes. They split their time with her and she loves that they do that but she feels like she can’t open herself up to them, scared that they think less of her because she’s gotten some privileges that they haven’t.

She has the intention to tell Archie about it one night when Reggie is out of the city and she’s feeling so so alone. She types out the message but deletes it and instead sends him a video of puppies tripping over things. He responds with an emoji of a smiley face, finally having found them.

__

She doesn’t know how or when it happens but suddenly she’s dating Reggie, like full on dating, he pretty much lives with her, he cooks for her every night and packs her lunches and sometimes even brings her tea when he picks her up from class.

And when it’s midnight and she can’t sleep, she crawls over to him, kissing up and down his chest until he gets the hint and turns them over pinning her underneath him.

She tries not to imagine red hair and eyes that makes her feel like she’s the most beautiful thing on earth.

__

It’s exactly one day before she flies down to Riverdale for Christmas, her fall semester had gone much more smoothly than her summer one. Classes not being compressed into such a short semester were much more relaxing. She has a million texts from Betty, Kevin and Josie combined, a few missed calls but she doesn’t feel like talking to anyone right now, having just finished her last final.

She’s sitting by her apartments bay window, looking out at the falling snow, praying that her flight isn’t cancelled when she hears Reggie drop his keys on the counter and slide his shoes off.

“Babe.” She turns to in the direction his voice is coming from, sees him as he walks into the small living room holding flowers and a small velvet box.

She thinks this is what her friends were trying to warn her of.

__

Christmas with her parents was very lowkey and private. She liked when it was just them playing scrabble and talking about simple things, like how her dad was building a wing in the hospital and it was going to be named Lodge and Andrews. 

Archie and his parents come over for dinner on New Years and they all seem so happy to be under one roof that she doesn’t want to ruin it with the news that her and Archie haven’t really been on speaking terms.

As the night passes by, Archie and her are left alone in the kitchen, he’s taking sips from a beer he’s been nursing since he got to her house and she’s looking at the red liquid in her glass.

“Ronnie.” She looks over at him, he’s leaning against the counter, he sets his beer down before sitting at the table in front of her. 

“Hey.” She says, looking at his face and thinking how much older he looks, she doesn’t mean since she last saw him, she just sees him, really looks at him and thinks of how he isn’t that 20 year old boy anymore.

“I miss you so much it hurts.” He reaches for her hands and she allows him to take them.

“What about break?” He shakes his head, squeezing her hands.

 

“That was stupid, I was just hurt, but I realize now that that’s how you were feeling, you don’t feel that way anymore, you don’t hate me.” It’s her turn to shake her head .

“I never hated you, what I did wasn’t fair, I just felt so betrayed, it was 10 years with them and they broke all my trust and I couldn’t separate them and you. You who have never hurt me intentionally, you who has been there for me every step of the way since I was seven and you were nine. I’m really sorry.” She pulls one hand away from his and places it on top of both their other hands.

“I forgive you.” A smile breaks on her face and she sees how one breaks on his too.

“Good.” 

They talk for the remainder of the night, filling each other in on everything that had happened in their lives the past six long months without each other.

She leaves out the Reggie of it all.

__  
She’s home for the rest of January, they go to the rink everyday to choreograph dance numbers to Sorry and What’s Love Got To Do. They want to master the new routines before they’re set to perform them in February in Switzerland. They both fall back into a rhythm like they had never just communicated through memes and emojis for six months. She loves that they can so easily fall back into place with each other and feel like nothing has changed.

Everything has changed though, at least for her. She talks to Reggie every night and tells him how much she misses him now that she’s home and he’s in BC training on the actual mountains. She calls Kevin and Betty and Josie on skype and tells them how she doesn’t know what to do about her news and how to even begin breaking it.

They tell her how she has to be the one he finds out from because if not it will kill him. She doesn’t know how it will since he started dating that pretty blonde curler a few weeks ago.

__  
They’re in Switzerland, at a bar after day one of their show when everything she tried to hide so hard comes crumbling down.

“There’s so much stuff we all have to catch up on!” Toni says, they’re all in a secluded area of the small bar, the yellow lighting sort of giving her a headache. Archie is standing next to Jughead who is slowly swaying to the music. She’s sitting in between Betty and Kevin who are both on their 4th drink. She nods at what Toni had just said.

“Yeah like Kevin and Moose’s romantic three week getaway!” Betty hollers loudly which grabs everyone's attention.

“I’m not the one who got engaged though, so,” Veronica freezes and looks right at Kevin whose eyes have gone the size of saucers a hand thrown over his mouth.

“Kevin.” Veronica whispers harshly, looking towards Archie who was still laughing at Betty.

“What? Who’s engaged?” Jughead asks, looking from Kevin to Betty who looked at the floor like it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen. Archie looked at her then, silently asking why everyone was acting so weird all of the sudden.

“I am.” She says, the area they are in is so quiet that they could hear a pin drop. She seals her eyes on his face, he pales immediately, shaking his head slightly in disbelief. He’s looking at her like he’s seeing her for the first time, like he doesn’t know her, looking at her with such blank eyes that she can’t read, that if she knew better, she would realize that she had just broken his heart.

“I have to go.” He sets his beer down so slowly that they could all stop him from leaving, but they don’t as they watch him walk out the door and into the dark night.

The silence goes on for a few more seconds before Kevin speaks up.

“I’m sorry.” Kevin says, she just shrugs her shoulders and gets up, not after Archie she just wants to get back to her hotel and think about how she’s going to fix all this.

“I’m technically not engaged yet.” She looks at her friends once more and walks in the same direction Archie had gone in.

__

When she gets to the floor where her room is, she sees a figure standing outside her door. She slowly walks up to him and stops in front of him.

“Is it true?” She cringes at the way his voice shakes.

“Not technically.” He looks at her like she’s playing with him, and looks away at the wall in front of him.

“How can you sort of be engaged?” She’s fiddling with the room key, looking down at his shoes.

“He asked me to marry him and I said that I didn’t know.” He scoffs at her, looking at her his eyes dark and his jaw clenched.

“Shouldn’t that be your answer then?” she silently asks him to keep talking.

“When someone asks you to marry you don’t answer with ‘I don’t know’ you answer with ‘yes’ you have to be 100% sure that you want to marry someone and if you aren’t it’s a ‘no.’” He finishes, examining her face so vividly that she feels like she’s burning. She doesn’t know what to say so he continues.

“Do you love him?” His voice wavers, he sounds scared.

“I don’t know.” She answers truthfully. 

“What do you know? What’s keeping you from saying yes?” She knows what he’s really asking with that. Who is keeping you?  
“I don’t know.” He throws his head back and for the first time she can see tears in his eyes. She feels a stab in her chest and she reaches to place a hand over her chest.

“You break my heart over and over and I’m so tired of this.” She’s shocked at his words, she wasn’t expecting for him to say that at all. She breaks his heart? She wants to tell him how over the 18 years of him being in her life he’s been a serial monogamist who jumped from relationship to relationship and that’s why she’s probably terrified of ever being with him.

“You have a girlfriend.” She says instead.

“I’ll break up with her.” Somehow she isn’t surprised that that just came out of his mouth.

“How can you do that? How can you be so lovey dovey over the phone with her two hours ago but now you’re telling me you’ll break up with her?” She’s trying to keep her voice low as to not disturb the other guests in their rooms.

“Because it’s you! Don’t you get it? I’ve loved you since I was nine years old, I would choose you over anyone.” She’s rendered speechless, she can’t believe that came out of his mouth. She would accept anything but that. If they can get past not speaking for six months they can get past his confession.

He moves closer to her, taking her face in between his hands. She needs to come up with something before she gives in and it’s too late to salvage them.

“We can’t be together.” He pulls away from her groaning in frustration. 

“Why not, Ronnie? It’s us, it’s always been us.” She feels like crying, she wants to wrap him around her and cry because what he’s telling her right now is everything she has always wanted to hear. But they can’t.

“We would never work.” He lets out another groan and flings his arms above his head, letting them drop just as fast.

“How do you know? You won’t even let yourself try!” He’s so mad, so hurt and she knows she’s breaking him but she also know they can come back from this. They’ve done it so many times before.

“I won’t, and you know why?” She pauses, “because it will all fall apart and we’ll lose everything we have built.” He deflates, shaking his head and stepping further away from her. 

“We could’ve been great.” He whispers.

“We are.” She whispers back.

“Jesus, Ronnie, I don’t mean skating.” She knows he doesn’t, but that’s all it can be.

“That’s all there is.”

“Fine.”  
He walks away from her, she hears as her heart shatters and imagines his doing the same thing.

This is what’s best for them.

At least she thinks it is.

__

She’s with Josie early in the morning the next day and she’s texting Archie her 40th message. She just wants to fix them as fast as possible and she tells Josie as much.

“He told you he loved you and you shut him down. Give him time.” She gives him five minutes before she’s calling him again.

“Veronica, think about this, you’re freaking out over your best friend not answering his phone because he may be mad at you but when you told Reggie that you didn’t know if you wanted to marry him and you left a day later, you didn’t even try to contact him.

“What do you mean?” Josie sighs, grabbing Veronica’s arm and pulling her to sit next to her on the bed.

“I mean, when you look at your life in 20 years, who do you want there with you? Reggie or Archie?” She doesn’t have to think about it before her response leaves her mouth.

“I can’t picture my life without Archie.” Josie looks at her knowingly, hugging her as Veronica finally lets her walls come down and cries in her friends arms.

 

vii.  
He ignores everyone on their day off. Veronica calls him and texts but he ignores all of it. He told her he loved her and she just stood there and told him why they shouldn’t be together.

He doesn’t know how he got back to his room, everything from the moment he turned away from Veronica turned into a blur. He physically hurt all over, like he had just been run over by the Zamboni. All he wanted to do was sleep and forget that he ever opened his mouth to tell her his feelings. 

He knows what he’s feeling isn’t fair towards Tina so he calls her and apologizes profusely for being the jerk that breaks up over the phone and he tells her how it isn’t fair to her that he’ll never feel about her the way he feels about his skating partner.

She calls him an asshole and hangs up. He deserves it.

He goes to sleep, forgetting everything that had just happened.

__

It’s three hours later when he wakes up to a knock on his door. He looks through the peephole, not wanting to let Veronica or Kevin. The latter because he knew about her stupid engagement and didn’t tell him. When he sees that it’s neither he opens the door.

“You look like shit.” Valerie strolls into his room and gingerly sits on his bed.

“Thanks.” He says shutting the door. He sits on an armchair opposite the bed and looks at her expectantly.

“You can still win her over, Reggie doesn’t have to be the one that marries her, Kevin told me that she still hasn’t said yes.” Archie chokes on thin air when he hears the name come out of Valerie’s mouth.

“Of course it’s fucking Reggie.” Valerie’s eyes widen

“I thought you knew.” He purses his lips, his jaw clenched with jealousy.

“Yeah.” She looks at him with such pity that he just wants the floor to eat him up.

“You belong together, you just have to tell her how you feel.” He groans, swiping a hand over his face.

“I did, and she turned me down.” He looks at Valerie who looks stunned and shrugs his shoulders. 

“Oh. I’m sorry.” he gives her a sad smile as a knock comes from the door. She gets up before he can stop her and opens the door to reveal a messy haired Veronica, chest heaving, standing in front of them.

“I need to talk to you.” Is all she says before walking past Valerie who waves at him that she’s leaving.

“I don’t want to talk right now.” She shrugs, telling him that she doesn't care. 

“Since when do I ever leave you alone when you’re sad?” He leans forward in the chair and stares at her.

“This isn’t me being sad over some other girl, this is me being devastated over you.” She walks over to him and leans down to be at his level, her hands resting on both his thighs.

“I know, and I can fix it.” He motions for her to go on and she takes a deep breath before speaking.

“So my whole entire life I’ve been a control freak, I have wanted to know the outcome to every possible scenario and obviously that changed when competitions started because we had no control in the judging process and what people said about us but I did have control of us. At least I thought I did. I knew our outcome, it was to be best friends forever because I would never let anything ruin that. But one day when I called you crying from my boarding house because I missed my mom so much and you picked my up at seven am so we could drive down to the border and to Riverdale just for a few hours, that is when I realized I had no control over my feelings for you.” She paused and he swallows, trying to not get his hopes up.

“So I tried my hardest from that day on to lock those feelings up, to control those feelings because if I didn’t I would lose you. You were the only person I had in Ilderton and I couldn’t lose you and that’s when I convinced myself that if we ever crossed that line, it would ruin everything. I was terrified of ever letting myself think of you like that so I went on meaningless dates and I had Chuck and that one other guy and Reggie.” He cringes at his name, but lets her continue, not breaking eye contact.

“Because they were safe. Because if we didn’t work out it wouldn’t be the end of the world. But if you and i didn’t work out, that would kill me. It would be the worst thing because I don’t know if I could have you, really have you be mine and then see you move on with someone else. That would be the end. So I fought it so hard, Archie, I fought so hard but you telling me you love me? That is what I have wanted to hear for so long and I realized with the help of a friend that I want it all with you.” His heart leaps into his chest and he’s paranoid that she can hear it.

“What we do, what we have done all our career is take risks, because we never knew if we would go to the Olympics or if I would be able to come back from surgery. We take risks and I don’t know a bigger risk worth taking than being in love with you.” She’s crying now, big fat tears rolling down her cheeks and he feels tears in his eyes too.

“I guess what I want to say is that. I’m in love with you. I have been for a very long time.” He’s so choked up he can’t even speak but Veronica isn’t moving away from him so he thinks she knows that he needs a few seconds to process everything. 

“Me too.” A wet smile appears on her face and she starts crying some more, she’s here with him and she’s telling him that she loves him. He hopes he isn’t dreaming. If he is, he never wants to wake up.

“It’s real.” He forgets how well she knows him sometimes, she sees her leaning in closer to him and stops her before she can get any further.

“Reggie?” she shakes her head quickly leaning in again before stopping once more?

‘Tina?” He shakes his head in return and finally allows for her to smash her lips against his.

She tastes salty from her tears and he can feel the moisture on her cheeks. The kiss is all consuming, hard and fast and every feeling he has ever felt for her. His hands are scrunching up her hair and she’s pulling him closer to her. He doesn’t pull away when he grabs her ass and picks her up, her legs wrapping around his waist as he guides them to the bed. They break the kiss and her hands are in his hair now as he works on her neck. She’s nipping at his earlobe and telling him how much she loves him over and over. He’s never felt so alive, those words never meaning more than when they come out of her mouth.

She’s grinding upwards trying to meet her hips with his to create some friction. Her impatience and need for control showing.

“Patience, baby.” He wants to make this memorable, wants this to be different than all the other times. Because this time she’s all his and she loves him and they’re going to try. 

“I’m so in love with you.” He tells her, unbuttoning her jeans and helping her out of them.

“I love you so much, Archie. So much.” She whispers it like a secret in his ear, like she wants to implant it in his brain so he never forgets. 

He doesn’t think he could even if he tried. 

 

***

 

“I woke up one day and Tessa and ice dance… that was my whole life.” -Scott Moir

“I can't picture my life without Scott.” -Tessa Virtue

 

 

Stars on Ice and Art on Ice performances (most are fan cameras because they’re from tours not televised )

Say it Right : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_yCL5tv4C8

Stay (this one is from the gala at sochi but they also used it for SOI):  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eysNtspIDWs

How Will I know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L6-z1hcE2U

Sorry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlhwcvIZAvg

What’s Love Got to Do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylg2zlBKIn0


	5. Long Time Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s the 20th of February and they are going in 20th place. They’re last. They win the draw. They announced their return on the 20th of February a year ago, they will go 20th on February 20th in their 20th year of skating together. It’s like the stars aligned for them. This is their destiny they’re soulmates.

i. 

They don’t tell anyone that they’re together, and at first, it’s fun. The sneaking around and making out backstage hidden behind the shadows that the curtains and lights cast, keeping them away from their friends. The thrill of possibly being caught is exciting, gives them a rush of adrenaline that adds to the bliss of finally, finally, being together. Officially together, feelings and all. 

But now, being cooped up in Archie’s house all summer is starting to get to her, and it’s not just about telling their friends, it’s about keeping it from the rest of the world that thinks they are already married and have some secret family. She wants to keep this to herself for just a while longer before her relationship belongs to the media and the fans. They already super analyze absolutely everything she posts on social media, they zoom into her sunglasses to see if Archie was the one that took the picture, they even go as far as trying to find the address to her lake house in Ilderton to see if Archie is there with her. Not that they would have found anything, when she was at the lake house, Archie was back in Riverdale renovating his new place. 

They have had a few months of downtime but with the fall tours approaching, she thinks it’ll be harder to hide from everyone. Archie keeps telling her that they hid so well during the spring and summer tours that no one suspected anything, but she’s scared that they’ll slip up and overnight they won’t be “Archie and Veronica” anymore, they’ll be “Archie Andrews and Veronica Lodge the Ice Dancing couple.”

The only people that unofficially know they’re together are their parents. The only reason being that whenever Fred or Mary come over she is always at Archie’s place. Her parents probably know because Veronica doesn't own a house in Riverdale anymore, opting to buy a lake house in Ilderton instead, and keep her apartment in Toronto. But she’s been around ever since the tours ended, and she hasn’t been sleeping at home, so it’s probably pretty obvious to them where she has been staying. Both sets of parents don’t ask any questions though, they just wholeheartedly support whatever is going on and ignore the fact that they haven't said anything to confirm.

Her friends, on the other hand, are being kept completely in the dark. She actually told Kevin that she was too busy dealing with school to see him. She lied about being in a whole other country. When she told Archie how bad she felt about that he told her to be careful because Kevin could show up in Toronto at any time to surprise her and not find her there. Which she responded to by texting Kevin that she would be finishing school in Riverdale because she was homesick. He understood and wished her well which made her feel even worse. 

“Maybe we should just tell them then?” she sighs, setting her laptop down beside her and looking at Archie who is getting ready for a shower. 

“The more people who know, the more the chance it gets out.” She stares at him as he dumps his shirt in the dirty laundry pile he has in the corner of his room, the basket next to it with newly washed clothes. 

“I know, but babe, you’re killing yourself over lying to our friends.” He sits down next to her and reaches over her to set his watch on the nightstand. 

“I wish I had never lied, before that we were just keeping the truth from them.” He chuckles, kissing her on the cheek before getting up and walking into the washroom. 

They’ll tell them soon, just not now, maybe after the tour.

___

Other than the fact that they’re lying to everyone they know, the past few months that they have been together have been so good, they have been so happy and domestic like this is how it was always supposed to be. She assumes this is how it was always supposed to be. Archie and her, going out and buying groceries with silly little disguises, Archie and her trying and failing at making new food that they have never tried, Archie and her taking showers together purely to save water. She’s not even kidding, they just wash each other sometimes, too tired from a workout or the night before. It was always supposed to be just them and she wants to keep it that way for as long as possible.

“Hello, darling!” Mary’s voice comes from behind her, she didn’t notice her come in, too focused on not burning the marinara sauce that Archie had left her in charge of. 

“Mary!” she puts the spoon down and walks over to Mary giving her a hug, she gave the best hugs, when growing up, besides Archie’s hugs, Veronica always looked for Mary’s hugs.

“Is Fred here?” Veronica asks looking behind Mary for Archie’s father.

“Oh no, I just came to drop this off.” She hands Veronica a brown manila folder with her and Archie’s name written on it in someone’s familiar scrawl. Veronica frowns, not knowing why Mary would have something that belonged to them.

“It was on my doorstep when I woke up to head to work this morning.” She takes a hold of the folder with both hands and places it on the counter next to her, a million possibilities of what it could be going through her head. 

“Well thank you for bringing it, I’ll open it when Archie gets back.” Mary smiles at her, backing up towards the door.

 

“I better get going, you know our Andrews men, they have to eat a hot meal.” Veronica giggles, nodding at the sauce on the stove. 

“I do.” Mary smiles wider at her, “thank you for bringing this by.” She follows Mary to the door and opens it for her. 

“No problem at all, I’ll see you on Sunday for dinner?” As Mary steps out Veronica realizes what Mary had said and what she had insinuated. 

Our Andrews men.

“Sweetheart?” Mary snaps her out of her thoughts, a smile on her rosy lips.

“Yeah, yeah, dinner.” Mary, satisfied with her answer walks over to her car and drives away. Veronica still stunned and standing there with the door wide open. 

“Oh god, she knows.” When the burning smell starts coming from the kitchen is when Veronica slams the door shut and bolts towards the burning sauce. 

___

“You’re so bad at cooking that even when I cook it you end up ruining it.” Archie teases her, scraping the bottom of the pot, trying to clean it.

“I’ll break up with you.” She teases back, he just scoffs and continues to clean.

“You wouldn’t dare.” She shrugs, handing him a dry cloth, he takes it from her with a smirk

“It was your mom's fault anyway. She just showed up here and said “our Andrews men” like she knows for sure that we’re together and I sort of panicked.” 

“Our parents knowing is kind of a given at this point, you knew that.” 

“I know! But it’s just weird to know that they know, plus she brought this shady package that threw me off.” She totally forgot about the package all her focus having gone to the burning sauce, and Archie coming home with the noodles and having to try and salvage what was left of it.

“What package?” She looks towards the small table by the entrance where she had set down the package, Archie’s keys lazily thrown on top of it. She walks towards the table, taking the package in her hands in feeling around for what it could be. Anxiety instantly hits her, immediately going to the worst possible circumstances. 

“What if this is from a stalker and it has their hair in it? What if it has teeth in it?” She rambles out, catching concerned looks from Archie from the corner of her eye. She can’t stop looking at the item in her hand, still feeling it. It feels like a letter like someone had just sent them paper. 

“Oh my god.” Archie puts the pot down and walks up to her, his hands reaching for the folder but before he can take it, Veronica spins around, her thoughts spiralling more and more.

“It’s pictures.” Archie cocks his head to the side and raises an eyebrow, confused at why she’s so upset.

“Someone has been spying on us and they got pictures of us kissing and now we’re being blackmailed!” Archie bursts out into laughter but stops himself once he sees that she’s being serious. 

“Ronnie, it’s okay, I highly doubt that.” He reaches for the folder again but she pulls it out of reach. 

“How much money do you think they’ll want? And will it be just a one-time payment or monthly?” Archie finally grabs her arm and takes the folder from her, her hands rushing to her mouth as she starts to nervously chew on her thumbnail.

“Ronnie, calm down, this is the publisher’s handwriting,” Archie says after looking at the scribbles on the front of the folder. She feels a bit stupid for panicking when she had felt the handwriting was familiar in the first place.

“Oh, well good.” Archie opens the folder and pulls out three prints with different pictures but the same title and font. 

“I like the one where your cheek is resting on my head, even if your eyes are closed.” She looks at the black background, contrasting with their all with their all-white outfits, Archie’s cheek resting on her head, his eyes closed and head downcast. His arm is around her and she can practically feel the grip he had on her shoulder just by looking at the picture. She’s looking up, the biggest smile she has ever smiled, radiating on her face. The font is simple, the focus on their names, all white capital lettering, front and centre. 

“I like this one the most too. I think it’s the most natural moment, not too orchestrated.” She nods in agreement, still looking at what would be their book cover, the first thing people would see when they picked up their life story. She’s broken out of her thoughts when Archie starts laughing.

“I can’t believe you thought we were being blackmailed.”

She ~softly~ slaps him with the print in her hands, Archie complaining that she broke his shoulder is something she doesn’t hear the end of until after dinner.

___

“Betty called me and said she wants to go to the lake house tomorrow.” Archie is doing pushups in front of their shared bed as she reads up on the latest happening of the world.

“That’s a problem.” He says in between grunts.

“How do I tell her that she can’t come to the lake house, without offending her and without having to tell her that I am not there and that I’ve been lying about it for three weeks?” Archie gets up, grabbing a towel from the foot of the bed and wiping his chest with it.

“You could tell her you just left to Riverdale for a bit?” He shakes out his hair a bit before sitting down on the edge of her side of the bed.

“I can’t! I told Kevin I was in Toronto.” Archie wraps his hand around her calf and squeezes before getting up again to stand in front of her.

“You need to get your lies under control.” She pouts at him and he mockingly pouts back, running a hand through his hair, the sweat making it slick back in some places and stick up in others. She traces her eyes down his body, his bare chest heaving from just having finished his work out, abs rippling in an after effect. His sweatpants hung low on his hips, the V peeking through making her heart beat faster. 

“You’re so gorgeous.” She was looking to say something simple along the lines of “hot” but gorgeous was the first thing that popped into her head and she quite liked the effect it had on him. His chest turns red and so does his face, almost matching his flaming hair. 

“Stooop” he whines and she giggles getting up, closing the space between them as she presses against his chest. She gently moves towards his lips, nipping at his top lip, when he starts to reciprocate she licks at his mouth, her tongue asking for access. They stand there making out for a few seconds before she pulls away, Archie’s face no longer red from embarrassment but red from the heat their bodies create for each other. 

“Can I join you in the shower?” She’s already pulling him towards the bathroom, her voice sultry as he lets her take control.

He lets out a breathy “yeah” before closing the door behind them.

 

ii. 

He’s half asleep when the phone rings, Veronica is asleep next to him not aware that anything new has happened. 

“Hello?” He groggily says. He looks at his bedside table and picks up his phone to check the time, who’s calling him at nine am on Sunday? 

“Archie?” Why is Kevin calling him at nine am on Sunday? He looks at the phone in his hand and pulls the phone that is pressed against his ear in front of him so he can look at it. When both phones are held in view he finally realizes that Kevin isn’t calling him at nine am on a Sunday, no he’s calling Veronica.

“F-shit, no shit,” he whispers, slamming his own phone on the bedside table next to him, closing his eyes and breathing in deeply. He needs to cover this up fast or Veronica is never going to kiss him again.

“Hey, Kev now’s not really a good time, we’re in a meeting for our book, I’ll tell her to give you a call back when we’re done.” He says whispering for better acting effects.

“Are you in Toronto?” Archie curses in his head at his friend's lack of respect for his imaginary meeting. 

“Uh no, we’re in Riverdale, she just got in for the meeting and all, yeah.” Kevin hums and he hopes it means that he believes him.

“Well, okay, tell her to call me back.” He says goodbye to Kevin and hangs up, sighing from relief.

He looks over at Veronica who still has no idea anything happened. 

“You’re so lucky you sleep like the dead.” He looks at the time again and decides that he can go for a few more minutes of sleep, cuddling into Veronica and under the blankets, 

That was a close one.

___

It’s around nine thirty when Veronica wakes him up by getting up and heading to the bathroom.

“Mornin’ babe.” She calls out, noticing that he had moved.

“Morning.’” He remembers the first time he woke up like some sort of panicked fever dream. He’s not too sure if it really happened or if the paranoia has gotten to him and he’s started dreaming of their friends finding out randomly. 

He reaches for where he left Veronica’s phone and unlocks it, going into the phone app to see if there was a call from their friend. Unfortunately for him, there was. He sighs and runs his hand over his face, plopping down onto his pillow once more.

“What’s up kiddo?” Veronica teasingly uses the nickname he had for her when they were younger.

“People who have sex should not call each other ‘kiddo.’” Veronica laughs, climbing on the bed and slinging her legs over his own.

“Hi.” He lifts his head to reach for her lips, giving her a small peck and falling back again. 

“Hi, what’s wrong?” He solved the problem, he saved them from being exposed, so she won’t be mad, he hopes.

“I might have accidentally almost told Kevin that we were together.” Her eyes widen and she gets off of him, sitting on her knees next to his body.

“what you’re kidding right?” He can see her being to spiral so he places a hand on her shoulder and it looks straight in the eyes waiting for her to look back at him and breathe.

“Ronnie, no I just answered your phone by accident and he was confused as to why I was with you so early in the morning, but I covered for us and told him we were in a meeting and that you would call him back and I think he bought it.“ she sighs, looking down words at their white bedsheets.

A giggle quickly overtaking her face as she slowly lifts her head and stares at him, a giggle starting to flow from her lips, her hand flying over her mouth to try and stop it from showing at self to him.

“what?” He wonders what does onset of giggles is for, though she would be scolding him or telling him to be careful but she’s laughing at him instead.

“it’s just- of course, it would be you that almost tells one of our friends that were dating. I strongly believe that you’re going to be the one that tells everyone, whether it be by accident or on purpose.   
You just can’t keep us a secret, it’s pretty much written all over your face and that’s why I think everyone thinks that they know that we’re dating.“

She says it with such conviction, no doubt in her heart that this is what she believes and he’s kind of offended. He can keep a secret, he can, yeah he might look at her like she’s the most beautiful ethereal thing that he’s ever seen but he can keep a secret, he’s not gonna be the one that tells everyone that they’re dating not until it’s time.

“no way Veronica, I can keep a secret I’m not the one that’s gonna let it slip you are.” Her giggles intensify as she pounces on him laying kisses all over his face, cocking her eyebrow as she pulls back and mockingly nods her head at him.

“Wanna bet Archiekins?” There’s no hesitation when he nods his head, he’s winning this, he’s not spilling it first.

“What does the winner get?” He says it not so innocently already implying what he wants.

“Let’s be cliche, shall we?” Veronica says, the look on her face so cunning that one would think she had already won. “You do whatever I want you to do when I win.” Archie grunts in agreement, stopping to protest when he realizes what she just said.

“When I win, you’ll do whatever I want you to do.” Oh, he’s definitely winning this.

He leans up into Veronica placing a small peck on her lips, as she tries to deepen the kiss, he pulls away, a teasing grin on his face. Veronica frowns eyebrows furrowed in disapproval. 

“you should probably call Kevin.” He says rolling out from under her and leaving her in bed staring after him. 

He’ll win this. 

——

There’s one week until the tour starts back up again. he’s excited to get back to performing for all the Canadian fans who have supported them throughout the years and even now when they aren’t competing. He still has an itch that he needs to scratch when it comes to competition but he’s not sure if it’s just because he misses it or because they missed out on the gold medal in Sochi. Ronnie and he haven’t talked at all about coming back, just keeping their focus on training new programs for the tours. 

He does keep thinking about the offer FP made him back when he was in Montreal. It haunts the back of his head at random times and Ronnie will give him a weird look every now and then like she’s a telepathic penny for your thoughts. He always shrugs it off though. Forgetting it as soon as he remembered it.

“Good kisser and say it right are very sexual.” He’s brought back from his thoughts by Veronica who is standing in front of him with half her red sparkly halter top hanging off. They’re in a fitting for their costumes and he’s already done, opting to go with a black on black ensemble.

“And?” Veronica is wiggling a lot, messing with how the lady wants to sew the top.

“Well, there are kids at the shows.” She says, frowning as the lady slaps her hands away.

“Well, we’ll smooth it over with Stay.” She glares at him and goes back to arguing about her costume. 

He wants to go home and sleep, fittings are the worst and most boring things that anyone can be put through. 

That’s probably the only downside to dating Ronnie before he could just leave and go hang out with a girlfriend, now he has to stay because she is his girlfriend.

“Babe, you can go.” She calls to him, their telepathy having gotten stronger over the years, it seems. 

“I’m fine, I want to watch you.” It might be the most boring thing to be doing on a Monday but he doesn’t want to be anywhere else but at her side.

___

“So,” she stops, setting her skates down and sitting on the bench next to the locker rooms overlooking the ice rink. His aunt gave him the keys so that they could come whenever they wanted to and skate when no one was around.

“Hmm,” he hums in response, undoing his skates.

“Have you thought about how maybe we shouldn’t give this all up just yet?” He turns to her, abandoning his skates halfway undone.

“What do you mean? Doing more shows?” She shakes her head and his heart starts thumping in his ears. The adrenaline from what he thinks she’s about to say hitting him straight on. He didn’t know he wanted this so bad. 

“Competition.” She pauses and he breathes in deeply holding his breath for the next words to come out of her mouth. “I think I want to go back, but only if you want it.” His head is already moving up and down before she can finish what she’s saying.

“Yeah! Yes, I want to compete. I miss it a whole lot more than I thought I would.” He can feel the smile take over his face, if they could compete again, it would be like a do-over, for them and for the fans.

“I thought I was confusing it with wanting redemption for Sochi. So I didn’t say anything until I realized that it doesn’t matter if I want redemption, I just want the thrill of competition too.” She’s smiling now too, a crease between her eyebrows is the only thing that gives way to worry.

“We have so many things to figure out, where to go, when do we announce it? Do we go for this season or the next?” He’s the one rambling now, his thoughts going a mile a minute, he can’t help it. Going back would mean everything.

“I think we can still take this year off but next season for sure, so maybe we can come back for 2018.” She says the last part quietly, probably scared that he’s going to judge her.

“Pyongyang?” He whispers, gently as to not scare her, as if he says it too loud the whole city of Pyongyang would disappear. 

“That’s the goal I set in my head, I don’t know if it’s too far of a reach or-“ he cuts her off quickly, wanting to reassure her. 

“No, definitely not, Ronnie, that’s a great goal. Going back to the Olympics would be amazing.” She nods hesitantly but agreeing with him overall.

“I want you to know that I might want redemption for what happened but redemption doesn’t equal the gold medal, it equals being present for you, for us.” He can finally see the sparkles in her eyes, sees the way that she finally lets go of the worry that she’s been feeling, the crease between her eyebrows smoothing out.

“Pyongyang, for us.” He says, a statement. 

“For us.” 

There’s still about three years until the Olympics but when they get on the ice that night, he’s already choreographing their gold medal-winning dance. 

____

She wakes up one night, in the early hours of the morning and wakes him up by whispering his name over and over.

“Ronnie?”

“We can’t go back to them. Not to them.” She cries herself back to sleep and it clicks in his head how much the betrayal of the Ilderton skating club still hurts her. 

She’s asleep when he promises they won’t be going back.

He calls FP at 10 AM their time and tells him all about their plans, tells him to keep it under wraps. FP promises to take care of them like they have never been taken care of before. 

“FP and Alice.” He mentions to Veronica at breakfast.

“What?” She looks at him cautiously and tentatively, wringing her fingers from the nerves. 

“They want us to come train with them, they want to reinvent us like we want to reinvent ourselves, they want to take us to the top.”

“FP and Alice and Pyongyang?” He’s not sure what she wants him to say, thinks she just wants reassurance that they’re doing the right thing. 

“Yeah.” He doesn’t know how else to answer her, he knows this is the right move for them and he might have messed up by not leaving Penelope and Clifford a while back, but he isn’t messing up this time around. 

“Their the father and mother of our competition, haven’t we dealt with that before?” She’s right about that small fact, but they have always worked better under the pressure of their competition, and this time they won’t be coached by the same people. 

“They don’t coach Betty and Jug, they coach teams that are one of a kind and they have never been shy about outscoring their kids.” She starts nodding, her lips pursed.

“FP and Alice and Pyongyang and us.” She’s beaming at him and he knows for a fact this is the right thing to do. 

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” 

The road to 2018 starts now and he couldn’t be more excited. 

 

iii.  
The week before the tour starts to go by really fast, they’re on a plane to Toronto before they know it, performing ‘Sorry’ and ‘What’s Love Got to Do’ the versions revamped by FP and Alice, for the first time.

She’s happy that she gets to see her friends every day and perform for the fans but she hates going to sleep alone. Archie is rooming with Kevin and she’s rooming with Toni. If people knew about them they would be able to have a room to themselves like Betty and Jughead but since she’s so adamant about keeping them a secret, she’s left to sleep on her own. It also sucks that Toni calls Cheryl every two seconds and talks to her until three am. Veronica needs her beauty sleep, she needs to get up at eight am to go to breakfast then the gym and then rehearsal. Not falling asleep until three am is really taking a toll.

“I just really need my own room.” She’s on the phone with the organizing staff that books them hotels in advance, trying to convince her to give her her own room.

“Ms Lodge, the expense would be higher than our given budget if we gave everyone their own rooms.” She sighs loudly, the lack of sleep not helping.

“I’m not asking you give everyone their own room, just me. I’ll pay for it myself, just please make it happen.” After a little more back and forth, the lady on the other line gives in and by the time they're in Montreal, Veronica has her own room.

“I’m really sorry I kicked you out.” She has just let Toni know that she isn’t going up to the same room as her and now the girl is giving her sad puppy dog eyes. 

“Oh no! Don’t worry about it, I understand the long distance of it all.” Toni smiles as the elevator dings and comes to a stop, the doors opening for Veronica to step through. 

“Goodnight! I’ll see you tomorrow at rehearsal.” The elevator doors close behind her as she makes her way to her room. Before she gets there she sees a figure standing in front of her door, dejavu hitting her from the last time he stood in front of her hotel room, the situation completely different. 

“What are you doing here?” She comes to a stop in front of him, a teasing tone to her voice. 

“I heard a rumour you conned your way to having your own room.” He has a playful tone to his voice, his eyes flirty and mischievous.

“I got my own room so I could sleep.” He grabs her arms and pulls her close to him so that their faces are inches apart, her arms wrapping around him instinctively. 

“But there are so many more fun things we could do.” His voice is lower and sultry now and she knows what he wants.  
“But I like to sleep.” She fake whines and he laughs, kissing her forehead.  
“And I like you.” She thinks they should probably go into the room before someone sees them holding each other so closely in the hall. They could probably say it was their pre skate hug turned pre-bedtime hug and people would believe them.

“Okay, come on.” He grins like a fool who just won the lottery, going to get her luggage that was previously brought up as she opens up the door.

___

The rink is empty, the lights are on and there’s music playing from the speakers. She’s taking it all in because if all goes well, this is where they will be training for the next few years. As she and Archie get closer to the rink they hear skates cutting through the ice at a high speed. The source of that sound comes into view and they stand they're watching Alice and FP skate an old routine from when they were pros. 

“Welcome!” Alice yells, skating over to them, arms stretched out wide. They had them meet them at a time when the rink would be closed and when Betty and Jughead had already visited. 

“Hi, nice to see you again!” Veronica says, letting Alice embrace her in a hug. She sees FP coming towards them over her shoulder.

“Kiss.” He says and Veronica makes sure to move away from Archie, thinking back to the moments before when they came in. Weren’t they holding hands, were they?

“Huh?” Archie asks, equally as confused. 

“The song, Prince, Kiss,” FP says pointing upwards at the speakers, signalling at the song playing. 

“Oh?” she wonders.

“We’re thinking your short dance could be a Prince medley, Kiss, 5 Women and Purple Rain.” It’s Alice who clarifies this time. Veronica has heard all those songs before and she really likes them, she also likes how Alice and FP already have something in mind to guide them along. 

She looks over to Archie who is smiling at her, they have a mental conversation, they feel FP and Alice staring at them, silently wondering what is going through their heads. 

“I like it.” She says, Archie agreeing, Alice and FP, all smiles that their suggestion was accepted.

“Let’s get started.”

“Lets.   
___

“We have to announce our return before people figure out I rented a place in Montreal.” Archie is trying to order food from some app that gets you food from wherever you want, but he’s having a hard time with the technology.

“Jeez, Ronnie, you have like four houses now.” She’s texting back and forth with their manager who is in on the comeback, figuring out a way to announce it.

“My parent's house is not mine, and renting is not owning.” He’s still fiddling with the app, getting more and more frustrated by the second.

“Okay you own two and you rent one, still a lot of property.” She ignores him, paying more attention to her texts and him to his food.

“Finally! The little car is moving.” She shakes her head at how cute she can find him over the smallest of things.

“She said we should announce it on CBC before the 2016-2017 season, so around the end of February.” That date was approaching them faster than they really anticipated. She thought that once they decided to go back to competition, everything that leads up to it would go slow, but they were doing so much to try and get into the best shape that the days were getting shorter. 

“I think February 20th.” Archi puts in his two cents and she wonders why he’s so specific. He probably figures it out when she doesn’t say anything so he adds, “When we go into 2018, it’ll be 20 years together, it just fits.”

She likes how detail oriented he can be, how sentimental it makes her feel too. The number 20 could be their staple and she loves it. 

“I think that’s a perfect date. I’ll let her know.”

___

She doesn’t know when or how it happens, it takes her off guard but she surprisingly doesn’t hate it. Archie wins.

They’re all at rehearsal for the last show of the tour before everyone has to go back and start practising for the competitive season, Kevin has just announced that he’s returning to try for 2018 and she could not be happier. She blames it on Kevin, she’s on cloud nine because her friends don’t know yet but they’ll be competing in the Olympics together. Archie excuses himself to go get a water when she shoves her foot in her mouth.

“Oh, can you get me one too babe?” Archie freezes on his way off the ice, everyone is looking at her and she doesn’t even notice.

“What? What happened?” When no one says anything it clicks in her head and the next thing she says doesn’t help.

“Bab-baby.” She just shoves her skate covered foot further down her throat, “Archie.” Kevin starts skating backwards all while still looking at her, eyebrows raised. Archie is still frozen in his place, looking between her and their friends. When she’s had enough of the awkward silence she flaps her arms around sternly looks at her friends.

“Okay, yeah, we’re dating.” The first one to break the silence is Josie.

“Oh, we knew.” Archie chooses that moment to come stand beside her, holding out a water bottle for her to take.

“What do you mean you knew?” Archie asks dumbfounded, Kevin rolls his eyes,

“It was so obvious, you guys are terrible at hiding it.” She can feel herself blush, embarrassment flushing her body. 

“Oh.” Both she and Archie said.

“Who here has heard them have sex?” All her friends put their hands up, not missing a beat. She doesn’t think she could get any more red, Archie just looks down shyly.

“Who won the poll?” Betty asks.

“Poll? She counters

“I swear if it was Cheryl I am going to be so mad.” They’re having a conversation between each other now, she wants to know what they’re saying, 

“What poll?” She looks at Archie who looks equally as confused.

“The poll of when you would tell us you were dating.” What? How long had their friends known about them?

“Who won?” Betty asks again, looking towards Kevin.

“It’s past Canadian Thanksgiving but not yet American Thanksgiving so-” Kevin pauses, going through an imaginary list in his head.

“Valerie.” Veronica gawks at Kevin, not knowing if she heard what he said right.

“Valerie as in my-” Kevin cuts Archie off nodding.

“She bet on us?” Kevin nods again.

“Everyone bet on you, we have hockey players in on the poll, pretty sure Sid the Kid is going to be very disappointed.”

“Oh my god, Sidney Crosby knows who I am?” Veronica glares at Archie,

“This is what you’re taking from this?” He shrugs his shoulders at her, laughing a bit.

“He’s a legend.” She shakes her head in mock disappointment.

“How much money did Valerie win?” She’s genuinely curious at how many people who are relatively close to them thought they were dating. 

“Oh a bit more than two grand.” That’s a lot of people.

“Holy shit.” Archie half yells, giddy from excitement. 

“Yeah, you guys are famous.” She can’t wrap her head around what just happened, but at least Archie and she are free to be touchy-feely around their friends now.

___

Christmas is spent with their families, joined together for dinner, they tell them that they are going back to competition and that they’re dating.

They’re more excited about them dating than them competing again. 

___

Betty and Jughead find out about them returning to competition when they’re suddenly tagged in someones Instagram post with them standing in front of the Gadbois rink. They’re happy for them but she senses a bit of tension. Maybe they thought that without Cheryl, Jason, Archie and her, they could be at the top, and they still could be, but they’re already doubting themselves. 

They’ll be okay though, they’ve gotten through worse. 

They’re officially moved into apartments next to each other and at the rink, every day at five am by January. No one thinks anything of them being in Montreal, they think they are making more show programs, and she hopes they keep thinking that until February when they can announce it.

iv.

“A lifetime together on the ice, welcome back, Road to the Olympic Games on CBC. The Olympic champions, two-time world champions, six-time Canadian champions, Veronica Lodge and Archie Andrews, ice dancers extraordinaire and lets not minx words, let's not waste any more time, you have an announcement to make.” Hearing their stats leave Scott’s mouth still amazes Archie to no end. Hearing how far they have come in their career is a feat he never thought he would get to see. After everything they have been through, it is so fulfilling to hear it. He can feel the butterflies in his stomach and he can hear Veronica’s nervous giggles in the foreground of his thoughts. He looks to her to take the queue and announce the comeback.

“We have decided to return to competition and we are so excited.” She turns to look at him with a huge smile on both their faces. “I don’t think this will come as a surprise to many people, we still have that fire within us and we are aching to just get back on that competitive ice.”

“What is your motivation for getting back out there, Archie?” Scott asks.

“I think the biggest motivation is that we still love the sport and we obviously needed a break after Sochi,” he pauses looking to Veronica for approval, her smile enough to keep him talking.

“But then there was a time when we walked back in the rink and we got excited again, we always had that fire within us and we’re coming back in a time when it’s not really necessary in the scene, we have such a great Canadian team, there’s no space for us almost but we’re coming back for us. We want to push ourselves and accomplish some more personal goals.” 

He finishes and they go on to talk about where they would be training, explaining how excited they are to move to Montreal for a brand new start with people they admire. 

He doesn’t think he’s throwing shade at anyone, but if he is, they deserve it.

___

Training as always intensifies before the competition begins, they practice non stop all of winter, spring, and summer, by the time October rolls around they feel better than ever to step on Skate Canada ice and face new and old competitors. They win their first comeback gold at Skate Canada 2016 with a combined total score of 189.06. They go on to compete in November at the NHK Trophy in Japan where they set a new record total score of 195.84, their Prince short dance getting 79.47, a new world record. The comeback was going better than they expected, they were on a high from how well they were doing, being back in the thick of competition felt like this is what they were born to do.   
When they hit the Grand Prix final in France, they’re feeling better than ever, not thinking that they could do any better than the last few competitions, they pre-skate hug, they tell each other they are doing this for themselves and they go on the ice. He sings the whole program, not taking his eyes off of her as they put on a masterclass in ice dancing. They skate the best skate they could have, setting the highest scores at a Grand Prix event. 80.5 for the short dance, their free dance to latch and pilgrims earning a total of 116.72 for an overall total of 197.22. 

They win gold for the first time in their careers at the Grand Prix Final. They cry happy tears to each other in their hotel room over a pint of celebratory ice cream. They deserve the cheat. 

Christmas 2016 passes by in a blink of an eye, they’re too focused on the upcoming January competitions. They have the Canadian Figure Skating Championships where they win their seventh national title with a combined score of 203.45, setting a Canadian record in the short dance, free dance and total combined points. With every skate they feel like their score goes higher and higher, upping the ante each time to do it better time after time, again and again. 

The next competition they have is in South Korea, Veronica is feeling a little under the weather but she doesn’t let it show to the outside world, forming a bubble around themselves. They win their third Four Continents Figure Skating Championship, the free dance earning them 117.20 points and an overall of 196.95. With that their premature goal becomes breaking 200. It’s an ongoing joke between them and their coaching team that they’ll make it to 300 before the Olympics. 

They break their own world record for their short dance score at the 2017 world championships in Helsinki. They get a score of 82.43 and a 5.5 lead over the reigning world champions Gabriella and Guillaume, who appeared out of nowhere when they left and are being coached under the same coaches as them. They trust Alice and FP so much though and they know for a fact that there is no foul play here, not like last time. 

The next day he’s feeling really confident, so confident that he eyes the judges a bit too much and he trips over his own foot. Veronica tells him a joke that he can’t quite remember now, something along the lines of “it’s not nap time, Arch,” the joke automatically puts him back on track and he focuses in on not messing up again. He doesn’t feel too bad and Veronica is having so much fun just being back in the competition that they are truly just doing it for each other, so they don’t fuss or get mad over the trip.

They place second in the free dance because of said trip, their overall score being 198.62 was high enough that they still placed first overall, setting another world record and winning their third title as world champions. They are ecstatic because, for the first time in their careers, they go undefeated in an entire season. 

___

When they get back to the hotel they are so tired they just lay in bed and lazily make out for what felt like three hours, Veronica asks for chocolate and ice cream, which he gladly gets for her. 

This is their last cheat day for a while, there are no breaks this time because the Olympics are eight months away and they want to keep the momentum going, they’ll start competing in September going all the way through to the Olympics, they haven’t talked about what happens after that and for now they are fine with that. 

___

“We have to start thinking of music for our programs.” She’s always half asleep when she decides to tell him important things. 

“Yeah, we should get on that as soon as possible.” She hums in response, drifting in and out of consciousness.

“Remember that one movie we watched in theatres?” They’ve only ever seen two movies in the theatre together, and he can only remember the one that she really fell in love with.

“Moulin Rouge?” she mumbles a sleepy yes and he thinks he’s lost her until she responds.

“I think a medley of ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Come What May’ would be good.” His brain takes a minute to comprehend that she just said song names in that sentence and he’s trying to commit them to memory so he doesn’t forget them in the morning. He doesn’t respond because she’s already fast asleep, he only kisses her cheek and pulls the blankets up higher on her shoulders, falling into a blissful sleep himself. 

___

“I don’t know it’s missing something,” FP says. They took the Moulin Rouge idea to Alice and FP and they were straightening everything out at the moment, FP not sure if the program worked.

“Maybe another song?” Veronica speaks up, she really wanted this to work out for their free dance, and he honestly did too, loved the idea of dancing to these songs.

“I’ll go through the soundtrack once more,” Alice says, hurrying off the ice and into her office to play the soundtrack over the loudspeakers. They all stand around the ice, looking at each other for any positive reaction from any song. When the soundtrack hits ‘The Show Must Go On,’ FP’s eyes light up. 

“This is it.” He gets off the ice to send the three songs to the DJ to see how he can construct them together. In the meantime, they are instructed to pick and choose moves they would like to keep and use from past dances. They spend around two hours doing that when FP comes running back.

“He did it, I really like this.” He presses play on the remote and the speakers turn on once more, it begins with ‘The Show Must Go On,’ and flows into ‘Roxanne,’ until finally it soothingly turns into ‘Come What May.’ When it’s over they stand in silence, taking it all in, all at once they all turn to Veronica and see as her face glows and her eyes sparkle.

“It’s perfect.” They all throw their arms up and scream words of happiness, he scoops Veronica into his arms and spins her around.

“Olympic worthy?” He questions into her neck, hoping she hears him.

“Definitely.”

___  
.  
“Why Moulin Rouge?” Jughead asks him one day.

“Because when I hear that music I think of Ronnie.” 

“Your whole career has been about your love for each other.” He thinks about Jughead’s words, said so thoughtfully and kindly and he thinks that they are true, because they need each other and working with Veronica has been the honour of a lifetime.

“Yeah.” He simply says.

That’s enough explanation for him.

___

For their short dance, they choose to dance to ‘The Rolling Stones,’ ‘The Eagles,’ and ‘Santana.’   
The short dance being latin inspired, they had heard rumours to everyone dancing to ‘Despacito’ but didn’t believe it until they went to their first showing for any feedback from the judges. 

Veronica looked at him and shook her head whenever ‘Despacito’ came on, and by the fifth time, she was already dead tired of the song. He reminded her that this was just the showing and they were going to hear it all season.

“Imagine going to the Olympics and performing to Despacito.” She whispered to him, she giggled as he looked around, making sure no one heard her before joining in on her laughter.

“I still think it’s better than whatever a ‘Latin Shape of You’ is.” He tells her, talking about their rivals dancing to Ed Sheeran for a Latin short dance. Veronica and he were very judgy when left to their own devices, they could tear people apart, some of their Canadian co-stars from tour hated being left alone with them, it was all fun and games though, they would never intentionally hurt someone.

“You’re right, Shape of You, takes the cake.” They’re waiting to receive more critics from the judges that already seem to hate their free dance.

“They hate it because it’s different and you have to remember no one wants us here. We have to fight tooth and nail.” It was true, it was all nice until the ISU found out they wanted to go all the way to the Olympics. Once they figured that out, the French team became their favourites and Veronica and Archie were being shut out. He would be scared that something like Sochi would happen again if they weren’t challenging the sport for them. He stuck by wanting to go to the Olympics for them, wanting to win gold for them, and if they were robbed, they would know in their hearts that they did their very best, the 2016 season being proof of that.

“We’ll fight tooth and nail.” She says, beaming up at him with no care in the world, this wasn’t like Sochi, this was different.

___

“How does it feel to be so close to another Olympics, still together?” The interviewer asks, they aren’t really in the mood for an interview, having just come from being hit repeatedly with everything the judges hated but they put on their brave faces and smile.

“You know someone asked me what I would have done if I didn't find skating, and it wasn't really skating, it was finding Ronnie.” Veronica looks at him confused and he thinks he just fucked up and gave them away, that doesn’t even really answer her question.

“So being so close to another Olympics and still have her by my side, it means a lot.” He sort of saves it and Veronica smiles at the interviewer and at him so he’s definitely in the clear. 

___

“I love you.” She says when they’re in the change room, they’re the last ones in there, having talked to the press for much longer than anyone else.

“I love you too.” She goes on her tiptoes and kisses him smack on the lips.

“What is it?” He cocks his head in question and she bites her lip, the corners of her mouth turning upwards.

“It wasn’t finding skating for me either, it was always finding you.”

 

v.

They treat the Autumn Classic International like a warm-up, it’s in September and they’re itching for the Olympics. They win it with an overall score of 195.76, which isn’t their highest score but it’s pretty good for the Latin short dance and Moulin Rouge debut.

She’s glad when they are assigned their Grand Prix assignments and Betty and Jughead are not there to compete against them, not wanting to extend the tension between them. They’re competing in different circuits which makes life much easier on her and Archie.

They win Skate Canada International with an overall score of 199.86, coming so close to breaking 200, they laugh about it with their team on their way back to the airport. They still have a few chances.

They also win the NHK Trophy in Osaka with 198.64 overall, still not breaking 200, but they still have hope.

Their luck runs out when they come in second to the French, Gabriella and Guillaume in the Grand Prix Final, they had half a point lead on them. It’s the first time she turns to Archie and softly tells him it’s happening again.

“What did we say?” He responds voice low but stern.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s for redemption as long as it’s for us.” He nods and hugs her, kisses her cheek and watches as the French sing their national anthem. She’s okay though because she has Archie’s hand in hers and that’s all that matters. She likes connecting with him, like he’s the only other person that exists, it’s comforting to her.

When they get back to Canada, for the 2018 National Championships is when they compete against Betty and Jughead after a whole year. They debut a new version of Moulin Rouge, making it more artistic for more of a dramatic performance. They win their eighth national title with an overall score of 209.82. They nearly get a perfect score on their short dance but they do get a perfect score on their free dance, no possible higher points is always an achievement. They break 200 by nine points and they are so happy to have achieved the small goal that they sleep in by half an hour. No pints of ice cream this time, the Olympics being just around the corner. 

___

Before they know it it’s January and they are being named the Canadian flag-bearers for the opening ceremony and in the blink of an eye, they are in South Korea in the Olympic village. 

The team event comes up first and they’ll skate both the Short dance and Free dance, Jughead and Betty opting out of the team event. Josie is doing the ladies short program, Toni is doing the free program, Kevin both men’s events and Midge and Fangs, both pairs events.

They win gold in the team event and suddenly there's all this talk that comes out of nowhere, if they win another medal in their individual ice dance competition they will become the most decorated Olympic Ice Dancers in history, having already tied with another duo from the past with the four medals that they already owned. 

Veronica decides that all the talk is a lot of pressure so they leave the Olympic village and go practice at a different rink where all the expectations couldn’t penetrate their bubble.

The French team missed the opening ceremony and the team event, only having arrived a few days ago, which Archie swore gave them an advantage but she just ignored him, focusing on what they had control over.

When they finally return to the Olympic village Midge and Fangs had won Bronze and Kevin had fallen really badly and missed out on the podium, you would never be able to tell with how happy he looked to just being there. Kevin had made it clear that these would be his last Olympics, choosing to retire right after they were over.

The day of the ice dance competition comes and they are going second to last, the French team going right after them, the luck of the draw is always the last spot, the nest spot, but she isn’t too worried about it, this is what they have been working towards for three years and she’s going to go out there with him holding her hand and give it everything they’ve got.

The pre-skate hug is extra long as the other team takes their time to get off the ice, they don’t mind, there in their bubble, not even knowing what the score to beat is yet. 

They dance smoothly, every turn and edge done with precision and care. The music flowing through them as they only see each other, the world around them going quiet. All she sees is Archie’s eyes, she’s trying to hold onto the feeling of looking into his eyes for as long as possible. Everything is perfect. Suddenly, the music is over and the crowd is roaring.

They did it, she can feel that it was a good skate and she can only hope that the score reflects that.

When they get to the kiss and cry, they sit with FP and David, an assistant coach because Alice is prepping the French team. They listen as the lady reads out their scores.

Technical Elements: 

44.53

Presentation: 

39.14

Short Dance:

83.67

They break their own record again and it bumps them into first place. They watch the French team dance and she wonders how they get a higher presentation score when they had sloppy knees and a wardrobe malfunction where Gabriella flashed her boob to the whole world.

“We aren’t supposed to be here, that’s why.” Archie reminds her and she laughs because they still got first place and the judges are probably trying to find a way to inflate scores for tomorrows free dance.

“I need to eat food and forget about Gabriella’s boob.” Archie chokes on his water and takes her hand, not caring who sees because they’re still at the rink and this is normal for them.

“Let’s go then, babe.”

 

___

They only really see one quote from the short dance floating around and it’s one that they got out of her because she was feeling really sappy about how much she loves and needs him.

“What did you say to each other before the short dance?” The most awkward interviewer asks.

“He looked at me before the short dance and said ‘no matter what we’re together and no matter what I love you and no matter what we’re going to enjoy this.’” She tells this to the interviewer all while looking directly at Archie who doesn’t break eye contact with her for a second.

___

It’s the 20th of February and they are going 20th. They’re last. They win the draw. They announced their return on the 20th of February a year ago, they will go 20th on February 20th in their 20th year of skating together. It’s like the stars aligned for them. This is their destiny they’re soulmates.   
They’re in a secluded room, the French going before them, they don’t know what they’re doing or what they have done or what they have to beat. This is for them only. This is redemption and love and them, just them.

“Our final skaters represent Canada.” The voice fades into the background as she finds Archie.

“Us.” She whispers as the music to Moulin Rouge starts.

“Together.” He says, not breaking eye contacts. They nod their heads at each other and make their way to opposite ends of the ice, not too far from the middle, facing each other. She digs her pick into the ice dramatically and they start.

He’s singing to her, the jealousy, the pain all of it emitting from him and then the love and the passion, she feels it all through him and it really is only her and him on the ice.

When they finish, he grabs her hugging her so tight she thinks she might have bruising later but she doesn’t care. He whispers how much he loves her into her shoulder so the cameras don’t pick up on it and skates away from her just to bump his fists a bit and slam back into her, picking her up and breathing her in. She whispers back just as discreetly as he had and she can’t wipe the smile off her face, she feels like she’s crying but laughing at the same time. She’s so happy, so completely full of joy that nothing could ruin this moment. Everything feels like a dream, it’s so pure and she’s on such a high, she could fly. He’s still holding her everywhere, his hands covering her back and then her ribs, he pulls away and high fives her just to pull her back in and kiss her face, she’s still cry laughing, not knowing how to break this spell. Not wanting too. They salute the crowd, smiles never leaving their faces and head off the ice, hands clasped together and bodies pressed close to one another. 

Before they step off the ice, Archie makes them look at the crowd once more and take it all in because this could be the last time. After Archie slams the foam door to the rink all the way out and they hug their coaches, They head to the Kiss and Cry where they will either win gold or silver. 

Free Dance:

122.40

They’re second, but she knows before Archie does because FP whispers it in her ear.

“You did it.” and she nods and looks at the score and does the math quickly. They did it. She wants to wait until Archie knows though, wants to see his reaction.

He doesn’t get it until the announcer tells them that they’re currently in first place. Their short dance saved them. They have a new Olympic world record with their total score being 206.07, they’re Olympic champions. They’re the most decorated Olympic ice dance team in history and Archie took forever to react.

When he jumps up he scares Alice half to death, he picks her up into his arms and repeats that they won about a million times and she’s still speechless and cry laughing.

“I’ve waited since Vancouver for you to make that sound, it’s the greatest sound in the world.” He tells her, still squishing her and she can’t breathe but she doesn’t care.

Everything goes by in a blur, she’s on cloud nine, there are so many hugs and so many congratulations but she just wants Archie to hold her.

They’re alone for about two hours before they have to go to the medal ceremony and get their medals and sing O Canada.

They sing at the top of their lungs, gold medals hanging around their necks, waving at their parents and looking at each other as they sing. Tears in her eyes from finally being here, with him after everything. 

___

They did it, they won but the most important thing is that he did it with her next to him, with the love of his life. With the person, he’s going to spend the rest of his life with. 

It’s been a long time running and it was well worth the wait.   
They’re the greatest of all time.

 

 

 

____________

 

Comeback announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Yw2Tcn3dM

Prince Short Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1xGAvmkUkw  
Latch Free Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJIk3t0IPiw

Moulin Rouge Presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryrBVGd9aOg  
Latin Short Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaqRqFAG7zU  
Moulin Rouge Free Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOEKdWrtz6U  
Gala, Long Time Running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EKmZA5COdM

 

 

“When I hear that music, I think of Tess.” -Scott Moir

“He looked at me before the short dance and said ‘no matter what we’re together and no matter what i love you and no matter what we’re going to enjoy this’” -Tessa Virtue

“Your whole career has been about your love for each other.” -An actual reporter said this to them

“It’s been the honour of my life, I think, to work with Tessa.” -Scott Moir

“We need each other.” -Scott Moir

“I’m just trying to hold onto that feeling of looking into Scott’s eyes.” -Tessa Virtue

“You know someone asked me what I would have done if I didn't find skating, and it wasn't really skating, it was finding Tessa." -Scott Moir

“I like only connecting with Scott like he is the only other person that exists, and that is comforting to me.” -Tessa Virtue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -insert huge sigh of relief here- It's done! Sorry, it took me actual years to complete this. I had the worst writer's block and then I figured out that my forte is angst and making characters miserable, so this chapter was a challenge. I was finishing up writing all this and trying to link up the videos and when I started watching Moulin Rouge I started crying over this fic and Scott and Tessa. I love it and them.
> 
> Thank you so much for sticking with me and as always, come yell at me about it on tumblr: roniiekins

**Author's Note:**

> “something really changed in my life when I started to hold onto the hand of a very beautiful little girl and it just seemed to make more sense to hang out with a cute girl than to hang out with 19 other guys.” -Scott Moir
> 
> "There is no next partner for me. Not only would it feel weird and kind of wrong, it’s not an avenue I want to go down.” -Tessa Virtue
> 
> Scott did refuse to skate with anyone else when Tessa was injured so he practiced with a sandbag and a hockey stick. How are they not in love?
> 
> If you want a reference to Umbrellas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRjqNbM9RHM
> 
> This will have about 5 parts. I want to make all of them about the same length so it might take me forever to post.


End file.
